The Lovely Sea Gardens
by Cactus Bob
Summary: Real men take baths. And as a talented and hard-working law-keeper in the medieval town of Ivrolyn, Atem could use a good soak more than anyone. Problem is, there's only one bathhouse in town... and it caters exclusively to women! Indignant at this shameless display of gender discrimination, Atem seeks the help of his closest friend Yugi, a magician specializing in transformation.
1. Chapter 1

Atem hovered outside the door to Yugi's cabin, feeling perverse. He hated himself for doing this. He couldn't believe he was even considering it. But his desire overwhelmed his embarrassment, and he snatched at the door handle, bursting inside.

The petite cottage was warm, clean as a whistle, dotted with patches of sunlight that streamed through the cloudy windows. Four benches flanked the entrance, and in the center of the room, a vase of wildflowers adorned a round wood table. In the far left corner of the room was a small nook, its walls covered in shelves heavy-leaden with bottled potions. A banner hung above the alcove. It read, somewhat ominously, "THIEVES WILL BE PUNISHED."

Atem shut the door behind him, letting out a short breath of relief when he confirmed he was alone; this was a conversation he was desperate to keep private. Stomach aching with anxiety, he took a seat on one of the benches and fidgeted while he waited for Yugi to return.

It was only a few seconds before he heard the soft padding of tiny feet coming up the stairs beyond the cellar door. Even after all their years of friendship, Atem was still startled by how short Yugi was, barely five feet even including his wild hair. His slight build and wide eyes gave him a childish appearance, an impression reinforced by his high-pitched voice. Despite Yugi's insistence that he was nearly twenty, Atem often wondered if he lied about his age. After all, he'd lied about other things before.

"Atem, hi!" Yugi said, a smile blossoming on his face though there was confusion in his eyes. "You don't usually come over during business hours; what's up?"

"Um…" Atem rose from his seat and felt a sudden wave of awkwardness. He slipped his hands into the pockets of his trousers, unsure what else to do with them.

Yugi frowned. "Everything okay?" he asked.

"Fine. Fine," Atem replied, although he was anything but.

Another terrible moment of silence passed. "Was there something you needed?" Yugi asked finally, after the pause had stretched on.

"I, um…" Atem cleared his throat. "I was hoping I might benefit from your expertise."

"Oh!" Yugi said, brightening. Then he recoiled, his brow furrowing. "Oh."

"Yes.'

"I see," Yugi murmured, but it was easy to see his hesitancy was feigned. Try as he might to hide it, excitement lit up his eyes like a star, the way it always did when someone brought him work. "Did you want to go into my office?"

"Yes, please," Atem answered, feeling very exposed in the lobby, where anyone could walk in at any time. So Yugi beckoned for him to follow and led him into a tight back room, unfurnished but for an elegant desk and three hard wooden chairs.

"Have a seat," Yugi said, taking a seat of his own across from Atem. As Atem hesitantly lowered himself down into the nearest chair, Yugi rummaged around in one of the desk drawers, withdrawing a gold fountain pen and a stack of papers as fat as a brick.

"Standard forms and releases," Yugi explained, when he caught Atem staring down the documents with an expression of dread. "Here," he said, passing over the pen. It was surprisingly heavy when Atem took it up, and frigid like ice to the touch. Enchanted, in all likelihood. But enchanted to do what? "So I'll need you to state some things, for the record. I don't want to be nosey; it's just…"

"No, it's quite all right," Atem said, waving a hand.

"Full name?"

"Atem, son of Aknamkanon."

"Profession?"

"_Politzer_."

"Ethnicity?"

"Galeidic."

"Age?"

"Eighteen." But Yugi know all this already. Atem shifted in his seat as Yugi scratched out his answers with a long white quill, knowing the most mortifying question was still to come.

"Okay, so now I need to ask… what kind of product was it, that you were interested in, specifically?" Yugi asked, glancing up from his papers and giving Atem an apologetic smile. Atem murmured a reply, far too quietly for Yugi to hear. "What was that? Sorry…"

Atem cleared his throat a second time, bouncing his leg in an attempt to dispel his nerves. "Male to female transformation?" he croaked.

"Aha," Yugi said, nodding evenly, his face an expressionless mask. But a grin escaped him for an instant, like a ray of sunshine peeking through a heavy layer of cloud.

Atem scowled at him. "It's not funny."

"Of course not."

"Stop laughing!"

"I wasn't!" Yugi said. "It's just the way you were acting—I expected something weirder, is all," he said, smiling as he jotted down Atem's request.

"You don't even know what I intend to use it for yet," Atem protested.

"Well," Yugi began, "you don't believe in sex before marriage, so that rules out a lot. .And you don't like men, so… I'm guessing it's for work? _Politzer_, you have to go undercover and everything."

"Not quite." Though it would have been the perfect lie, if Yugi hadn't had ways to detect deception. Perhaps that was the magic pen's purpose—the enchantment kept the user from writing anything untrue.

Yugi's face went blank as the gears in his mind began to turn. He liked puzzles, riddles, mysteries, and Atem loved to see his brain at work; he had long since come to terms with the fact that Yugi was smarter than he was. Less than a minute went by before Yugi's eyes widened in realized. "Do you have the answer?" Atem asked.

"I think so." Yugi grinned. "This wouldn't have anything to do with the Sea Gardens, would it?"

Atem flushed, and this was all the answer Yugi needed. "Don't feel bad," Yugi told him. "It's actually pretty common."

"Is it?"

"I don't know why they don't just make one for men. A bathhouse, I mean," Yugi said. "How did you even hear about it?"

"I didn't. A case took me there, actually." Yugi raised an eyebrow. "I was chasing a thief—he ran inside. I suppose he was hoping I'd value the girls' modesty too much to follow him, but I pursued him, tackled him; we fought. And at some point during the struggle I ended up falling into one of the pools." Atem would never forget the sensation; the hot water and fragrant oils had sucked every ounce of tension out of his body. It had taken all his willpower just to get out to arrest the culprit.

"So I will need you to sign these," Yugi said, pushing the paper stack across the desk. "For the record. Just in case."

"In case of what?" Atem picked up the first piece of paper and gave it a cursory read. A form absolving Yugi of liability if the client was ravished while transfigured. Became pregnant while transfigured. Menstruated. Lactated. Developed breast cancer. Developed vaginal sores. The list of potential mishaps went on and on until Atem's hand was cramped and sore from writing. "Has all of this actually happened?" Atem demanded, massaging his palm.

"Yeah," Yugi sighed, shoulders sinking. "If you think that's bad, you should see the forms for animal transformations…"

"How do we go about this, then?" Atem asked, as he put his signature down on the final few papers. "I drink one of those… pink potion things… whenever I want to visit the bathhouse?"

"Not necessarily," Yugi answered. "I don't generally offer them to the public, but there are plenty of other ways of getting from one body to another—enchanted objects, spells…" Suddenly he hesitated, as if were debating something. "Actually, you know what? Why don't you come with me down to the cellar? I can show you what you have to chose from."

Atem blinked, taken aback. He'd never seen Yugi's cellar, the secret place where the young man lived and conducted all his experiments. As far as he was aware, no human being had ever set a foot down there. A twinge of guilt made his stomach contract. A part of him had always suspected that the cellar had held some despicable invention, and it pained him that he hadn't put more faith in his friend. Despite his many eccentricities, despite the vast power at his disposal, Yugi had never hurt anyone, and Atem should have put more trust in him.

Binding the signed release forms in a stiff leather cover, Yugi tucked the packet under his arm and headed for the cellar door. "It's not because I don't trust you. That I've never let you down here," Yugi said, as he fumbled around in his pocket and removed a fat brass key. "I guess I always thought you thought this stuff was kind of… perverse."

"Perverse? No," Atem replied, though he had to admit, Yugi's consuming preoccupation with transformative magic was a little bizarre. Of all the genres and subgenres of sorcery, why specialize exclusively in metamorphosis? Why not set things on fire or learn how to fly?

They descended a staircase so long that Atem had to wonder if Yugi had made his home at the center of the earth. "I should probably warn you," Yugi said, casting Atem an uneasy glance over his shoulder. "There might be some stuff down here that looks a little… strange. But they're just experiments; they're not, um… for me." Atem frowned at him, and he cringed, looking like someone was holding a hot flame to his fingers. "You'll understand when we get there…"

At long last they reached the bottom of the stairwell, where a second door awaited them, forged from steel and covered in short spikes. "And I thought my house was secure," Atem said, mostly to ease the apprehension that was building in his gut. Yugi acknowledged his attempt at levity with a quiet, perfunctory chortle.

Atem didn't know what he expected to see when Yugi eased the door open—a stone cave full of arcane artifacts, spell books, air thick with dust and the smell of witch's herbs. Instead he was confronted with a rather mundane little living space hewn out of solid rock. A small bed with a thin mattress sat in the corner, made up neatly, next to a countertop and stove. On the opposite side of the room was a writing desk drowned in papers, and beside it, a bookshelf, water barrel, cage—

Atem stopped short. Cage!?

Yes, and more than one, in fact, each filled with a gaggle of small white rabbits. A young woman sat on the floor before them, watching them with a dull but contented expression. Aside from a flimsy robe she'd neglected to tie up, she was quite naked.

"Rachel," Yugi said. The girl turned her head, and the movement of her hair was mesmerizing. The thick red tresses shown in the light of the nearby lantern like burnished copper. "This is Atem. He's my friend." She gave Atem an uninterested glance and greeted him with a twitch of her nose before turning back to the caged bunnies. "Rachel doesn't like being a rabbit anymore," Yugi said, setting the papers down and pulling off his jacket. "So I let her stay like this when we're not testing."

"You test your products on animals?" Atem asked.

"Yeah. If you start when they're young they're not scared of it. Sometimes like Rachel they'll even prefer a different body," Yugi explained. Atem pressed his lips together, and Yugi wrung his hands. "You think it's awful, don't you?"

"You don't think it would be better to experiment on someone who could give you their content?" Atem asked.

"If you find any volunteers, feel free to point them in my direction," Yugi replied. "Until then, I'd rather someone go wrong with one of them than one of you." Atem shrugged a shoulder. Now that he was a client of Yugi's, he supposed he was in no position to judge. "So anyway—there are lots of different ways we could do this—"

"Right," Atem said, eager to return to the primary subject.

"There are the potions, which I sell to most of my customers. But I wouldn't recommend it, in this case," Yugi said. "The transformations are painful and wear off after a set time. So if you fall asleep in the hot water—"

"They'll be digging my grave the following morning. Understood," Atem said. "What else?"

"I'm working on something special for married couples," Yugi told him. Atem did his best not to give that statement too much thought. "But it's untested, and besides, you'd need a woman who would kiss you—uh, no offense."

"None taken."

"I'm sure there are plenty."

"Don't worry about it," Atem said, but the comment had stung more than he would have expected. The women of Ivrolyn didn't care much for foreigners like himself. Those who did just expected him to ravish them and move on, like some sort of savage. "Are there others?"

"Sure. But they're permanent. and by permanent I mean you wouldn't be able to change back without my help. And I obviously I would; I would be happy to. I just don't think you want to have to come all the way over here each time you want to take a bath," Yugi said. "Except… there is one other thing," Yugi continued, rocking back and forth on his feet. "A ring."

He turned and opened the large chest at the foot of his bed. Atem craned his neck but could only make out a few of its contents—a handful of masks carved in the shape of animal faces, and a black cloak that looked like it had been sewn out of some sort of hide. Yugi gingerly sifted through the odd items, surfacing a bit later with the ring in tow. It was gold, with an opaque green stone reminiscent of jade but without the patterning.

Yugi held the ring up and looked Atem dead in the eye. "This ring cost me fifteen hundred _korona_. All right? I am loaning it to you. You can keep it as long as you want, but please, _please _don't lose it, okay?"

"I won't. You have my word," Atem said, plucking the precious piece of jewelry from Yugi's outstretched hand. "Am I supposed to wear it?" he asked.

"No, actually; you have to lick the stone," Yugi answered. Atem grimaced, but was about to do as Yugi had said when Yugi batted his hand away from his mouth. "I was kidding!"

"If you don't mind my saying so, Yugi, your sarcastic tone could stand some improvement," Ate said. "I don't think this is going to fit."

"It will; just put it on," Yugi encouraged. Atem let out a sigh, held the tiny ornament at the tip of his middle finger.

"Should I be wearing different clothes?" he asked suddenly, glancing down at his shirt.

"No, it'll be fine."

"It's just that I'm not sure a female body will be completely, uh… _contained_…"

"Atem," Yugi chided. "There's a reason the ring cost fifteen hundred _korona_. It'll be fine." But again Atem found himself hesitating, brain scrambling for excuses to postpone his metamorphosis.

"It seems I'm a bit nervous," Atem said, laughing faintly. It was comical, almost; a _politzer _scared of a woman's ring. A _politzer_, who wasn't supposed to be afraid of anything.

Yugi smiled sympathetically. "Most people are, the first time," he said.

"Were you?"

"I wouldn't know. I've never actually done it," Yugi answered.

"Never turned into a woman?"

"Never turned into anything, actually."

Atem's mouth fell open. Yugi Muto, arguably the most skilled transformative magician in all of Ivrolyn, had never changed his own shape? "What? Why?" Atem asked.

"Well, when other people get stuck in some other form, they come to me, right? But who am I going to go to if I get stuck?" Yugi explained.

"There must be other magicians who would help you—"

"No," Yugi said, his tone so curt that Atem flinched back as if he'd been struck. Immediately Yugi shut his eyes and let out a sigh of regret. "Sorry," he said quietly. "There just… really isn't anyone…"

"Of course," Atem murmured. "Of course, I wasn't thinking." He swallowed, wondering if he should say anything more, and ultimately deciding against it.

He turned his gaze to the ring, which was still lurking at the end of his finger. Female. _Female_. Was a bath really worth losing such a large piece of his identity, losing his manhood, even if only for a time? Would he make an ugly girl, or a fat one? Or worse, would be turn into some kind of beauty that men couldn't take their eyes off of? He felt sickened at the thought, and he hoped that he was ugly, or at least too foreign-looking to attract anyone's leers.

"Here goes," he said, and before he could talk himself out of it, he shoved the ring onto his finger. To his shock, the tiny band slipped on without any difficulty. He looked down at his hands to see if the ring had expanded—only to find that, instead, his finger had shrunk.

It was slender now, tapered, but still brown and calloused as it had been before. His fingernails had grown a little but retained all the tears and dirt. He turned his head; something tickled his neck, and he reached up to touch it. His eyes widened his fingers sank deep into a cascade of wavy black locks.

"Do you have a mirror?" Atem asked. His voice! Deep like his normal one, deeper than was common for a woman, but undeniably feminine. He rubbed at his throat, feeling more self-conscious every second, while Yugi retrieved a hand mirror from a drawer and held it up before Atem's face.

His features had narrowed, eyes and lips enlarged. Even his eyebrows had become less wild and more slim. He glanced down at his body, confronted immediately with a pair of small breasts; he reddened. His slender waits and swollen hips were readily revealed by a floor-length brown and white peasant's dress.

Atem passed the hand mirror back to Yugi. "Damn it," he muttered.

"What?"

"I'm attractive," he said. Then he paused. Was he still "he"? Or was he technically a "she," now? He had the appearance of a she, and the equipment—according to Yugi, he could even bear children if he wished. But no, he was still a guy on the inside; he _felt_ like a guy. That was what counted. He hoped.

"Yeah, about that, um… Probably you should try not to go out, like this, too often?" Yugi said, pressing his fingers together into a steeple shape. "Maybe transform right before you get to the bathhouse, especially if you're… going at night…"

"Yes. Yes, you're right, of course," Atem said. He'd have to take care not to transform in front of anyone, either. If it got out that he, a _politzer_ of Ivrolyn, had turned himself into a female to go bathe with naked women, he'd never live down the shame.

"Other men have done this?" Atem asked, to soothe his uneasy conscience.

"Plenty," Yugi said. "It's actually sort of funny—usually when men come to be turned into women, it's for something pleasure-related. To find out what sex is like for women, or to use the bathhouse, or to seduce another guy they love. But when women want to be turned into men, ninety percent of the time it has something to do with work—they want to be trained as a _politzer _or a warrior or something."

"Understandable. I'd imagine not every girl wants to have to choose between barmaid, courtesan, and housewife," Atem said, running his fingers through his hair. It was terribly soft. He wanted to stop touching it, but he wasn't sure he could. "But it does make one wonder, doesn't it? How many of the people out there used to be something else. Well, not you, I suppose." Yugi could tell on sight who was transformed and who was not.

Anxious to return to his normal form, Atem tugged at the ring—panicking when he realized just how tightly the band was affixed to his finger. "Rather—rather snug, isn't it?" Atem asked, pulling at the ring with ever-increasing desperation.

"You should have seen it before I fixed it. It was cursed, so it was designed to become too tight to remove," Yugi said.

"You—you paid fifteen hundred _korona_—" Atem gave the ring one great final tug, gasping when the item slipped free and the transformation washed over him. "You paid fifteen hundred _korona _for a cursed ring?" he asked, shaking out his hand, which felt raw and was red with pain. Good grief, this magic business was expensive. No wonder Yugi was richer than the king. "How much is it worth now?"

"Maybe five, six thousand. Not worth selling, not until I can duplicate it," Yugi said. Atem blanched. He couldn't have earned that kind of money if he worked every day for the rest of his life.

"I won't lose it," he promised again. He couldn't afford to lose it. He'd have to sell his very soul to pay back his debt.


	2. Chapter 2

Atem lurked in the shadows of an alleyway, craning around the corners of the buildings beside him to catch sight of the streets. It was late, long past dusk, and the road was all but deserted, but warm firelight and noise were pouring out of the bathhouse, beckoning him inside.

Was this wrong? He hadn't come to peek or spy; if he wanted to ogle a woman's body he could simply glance in a mirror. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was violating these girls' privacy, even if his intentions were pure.

Trying hard to convince himself he was doing nothing immoral, he slipped the ring onto his finger, feeling it tighten disconcertingly around his flesh. He stepped out onto the street, nearly tripping over the hem of his dress, and tugged his bodice upward, wishing it wasn't quite so low-cut. The sight of his own cleavage was horribly distracting.

He stepped up to the guard at the bathhouse's entrance, a large man with arms like small trees and a stomach the size of a wine barrel. Even though Atem had retained his normal height when he'd switched genders, he felt like a dwarf in the large man's presence, and he winced when he suddenly envisioned himself being crushed under the guard's huge girth.

"Hi," he managed weakly.

"Five _kor_," the guard muttered. Atem fished the fee out of the pocket of his skirt and passed it over. "Head on in."

Atem hesitated a moment; he couldn't believe it had been that simple. "Er… Have a good night," he said quickly before skirting past, heart pounding. As soon as he entered the door he was assaulted with a wave of wet heat, overwhelmed by the smell of oil and roses. The room was dimly lit, every inch paneled with polished wood. A small corridor led off to what he assumed was a changing room. He edged toward it, resisting the instinctive urge to close his eyes. Once he went in there, there was no coming back. There was no washing away the sinful stain of what he'd done.

"First time?"

Atem spun around, heart catapulting into his mouth when he found himself confronted by a young woman. She was petite and extremely slender, fair-skinned, brown-haired. She wore a sumptuous dress of blue silk, but it was worn and faded and frayed in places; some of the seams had been restitched. It must have been ancient. "Um…"

She beamed at him, her smile radiant. "Don't worry about it! Here, I'll show you around," she said, looping her arm around his and practically dragging him down the dark hallway. "So first stop is the locker room; that's where you change and scrub up."

"Scrub up?" Atem asked. Who bathed before a bath?

"You don't want the water getting dirty, do you? It only gets changed once a day," she said. Before he'd even realized what he happened, she had tugged him down the length of the hall and pulled him into one of the numerous side rooms. Immediately he staggered back. In the center of the rough stone floor, three girls sat on wood stools over an expansive grate, scrubbing at their bare white skin with rough, soapy brushes.

The young brunette caught a glimpse of his shell-shocked expression, and she bared her teeth in a wry grin. "You can't seriously be trying to tell me that you've never seen another woman naked before," she stated. "Don't you have sisters?"

"O-only child," Atem stammered.

"Really?" she asked. "I know it can be hard to… not compare yourself, at first, but you get used to it after a while. Trust me. You're going to have a great time here."

"Right," Atem agreed, though tearing his eyes off the ladies proved more difficult than he had expected.

The woman led him over to a series of wood lockers that lined the wall, then slipped her aged silk dress off so quickly that he was forced to do a double take. In the half-second it took him to wrest his gaze away, he couldn't help but notice how well-muscled she was, and how lean; she was probably stronger than he was in his current form. "You can put your stuff in here. Theft's not really an issue; just don't bring anything too valuable," she said, as she removed her slip and undergarments. Maybe that was why she'd worn such an aged dress. "That ring, for example—you should keep it on, if you can. It looks like it's gold, so the water shouldn't affect it."

"Oh, no, this—this isn't leaving my finger," he said, stomach quailing at the very thought of such a terrible occurrence.

He bit his lip as he began to undo the laces of his bodice, blood rising to his face until it felt like it was sizzling. This wasn't his body, he reminded himself, not really; there was no reason for him to be embarrassed. This wasn't his real chest or his real groin.

He gasped suddenly as the woman, now entirely unclothed, pressed up against him. "Here," she said, as she grabbed his hair and used a tie to gather it in a loose knot at the back of his head. "God, you have such beautiful hair," she said, in a tone of envy.

"Th-thank you," Atem squeaked. He squirmed as he felt an unfamiliar sensation of warmth down below.

"Mine gets all broken whenever I try to grow it that long," she complained,, heading over to one of the stools and dumping a steaming bucket of water onto her head. "Why I keep it short." She lathered up her scrub brush and went to town on her skin until it glowed pink.

Keeping his eyes pinned to the floor, he mimicked her, grimacing as he worked off multiple layers of dirt. "I, um… I don't believe I caught your name?" Atem asked.

"Téa," she replied.

"A… Anna," Atem said. Téa made a face of surprise. "Not what you expected?"

"No offense, but—it doesn't really look like you're from around here. I guess I was expecting something more foreign-sounding," Téa admitted. "Where were you born, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Al-Aram, in Galeid," Atem answered, happy to be able to tell the truth for once.

Téa beamed at him. "Do you speak Galeidic?"

"Yes," Atem laughed.

"Say something."

Atem looked at her. It was getting easier to maintain eye contact, though he still had to struggle. "_Jedzhiri mo alla ye, sifu ye ama-sa'ara lo_." _If you knew who I really was, you'd axe-murder me._

Her smile widened, and he found himself smiling with her. Few people reacted so well to his heritage. Even Yugi had been less intrigued and more indifferent, though Yugi had travelled quite a bit before settling here, scouring the known world in search of rare magical artifacts. "What's that mean?" Téa asked him.

"I scrubbed my skin too hard," Atem lied, making a face. Téa laughed, dumping another bucket of water onto his head.

"We've all been there. The bath will make you feel better; come on," she said, grabbing him by the arm and hauling him away a second time.

The main bath room was expansive and contained four vast pools. Stream rose into the air so thick that it was difficult to see more than a couple of feet, which Atem considered a blessing as he sank down into the water. The moment it reached his lower back, all the day's hassle and embarrassment and worry were wiped from his mind, insignificant compared to the glorious pleasure of the heat. He let out a long sigh and sank down until he was submerged up to his chin.

"Ahhh," Téa breathed as she lowered herself down beside him. "This bathhouse is a life-saver."

"Mm."'

"I wish it wouldn't make my feet so soft, though," she said, lifting one slender leg above the water. He cracked open one eye and gave her a questioning look. "I know, it's not what you'd expect a girl to say, but you need the calluses in my line of work. I'm a dancer."

"Oh!" No wonder she was so strong, then. "Where do you dance?"

Téa face contorted in a grimace, and Atem pulled back. "Nocturne. At the moment."

Atem frowned. "Nocturne, that's…" A strip club, as he understood it, although he'd never visited the facility himself.

"Only until I find my way onto the scene, all right? It's not as though I enjoy it, parading myself around in front of all those disgusting men," she said, slapping the water in irritation. Atem fidgeted, strangely insulted. "It's just to make ends meet."

An awkward silence hung between them for a moment. "Not all men are like that," Atem said finally.

"Really? Well, if you run across one who isn't a complete pervert, point him in my direction," Téa said, placing a washcloth over her eyes. He frowned at her, wishing he could present someone as an example, but maybe she had a point about men after all. He had turned into a female just for the chance to take a bath. His coworkers often harassed and teased the girls they ran across. And Yugi kept half-dressed bunny women locked in his basement. The only remotely righteous male he could think of was his father, but Aknamkanon had died so young Atem had hardly known him at all. Maybe he'd had some twisted secret of his own.

"Well," Atem said, "not all men mean to be like that."

Téa snorted. "Guess that will have to be good enough…"


	3. Chapter 3

Weeks passed, and Atem returned to the Sea Gardens almost nightly, crossing paths with Téa more often than not. They'd sit together when they met, chatting about their lives, until Atem had spewed so many lies he could hardly keep them straight. He was a woodswoman, he'd claimed, hunting game and picking herbs he found in the wild to sell for money. He lived alone at the moment, but was looking forward to become a wife, to having children; he'd never found a man he'd particularly cared for, unfortunately.

He had, however, been able to tell a few truths—that he'd come to this country at age thirteen when his father had died, leaving him orphaned, and that he was friendless except for an eccentric young sorcerer whose mind was always on his work. "Friends with a guy? Really?" she laughed, with an expression suggesting something between astonishment and disapproval. "How can you stand it?"

"What do you mean?" Atem asked.

"Well, you know how you have to be around guys," Téa said idly, crossing her arms across her exposed stomach. "Chin up! Back straight! Stomach in! Don't fuss with your hair, don't clean your plate, you know—the games."

Atem frowned. He'd noticed that Téa was unlike any other girl he'd met, but he'd just assumed that she was unique, unusually crass and straightforward. Was it possible that all women were like this, putting up a wall of pretense to make men think they were dainty? The thought unsettled him. "Yugi really isn't the sort of person who cares about that sort of thing," he answered, truthfully. In general, Yugi only paid attention to two things: what you were, and what he could turn you into.

"Are you interested in him?" Téa asked.

Atem blanched."What? No!" he exclaimed, shuddering at the very thought. She grinned.

"All right. If I stay in here another minute, I'm going to pass out," Téa said. She turned and lifted herself out of the water. By now, Atem didn't even have to struggle not to gawk. "I'm heading to the lounge. You coming?"

"Sure," he agreed, though he'd only been in for a half-hour and was far from feeling faint. He never thought he'd find anything he liked more than the hot pools, but to his surprise, remaining in Téa's company was more appealing than remaining in the bath. Water slopped onto the ground as he stood and followed her.

They pulled on long cotton robes, dried their wrinkled feet, and retreated to a cool back room where wine and bits of bread had been laid out for the patrons. "So I have tomorrow off," Téa said, flopping down onto one of the luxurious chairs and wolfing down a slice of black rye. "We should do something—visit the marketplace. I have a friend down there who sells ceramics; you have to see it. I swear, she must be the god of pottery."

"I, um…" Atem would have given almost anything to go, but deep down, he suspected that maintaining this form outside the bathhouse was going one step too far. "I'm sorry. I promised someone I would help them with something," he told her, wincing to show his remorse.

"Oh.." Téa's disappointment was evident on her face. "Well, if you get the chance."

"Of course."

There was silence for a moment, made awkward by his refusal. He could only hope she didn't think he'd blown her off. Pouring himself a goblet of wine, he sipped at it in a weak attempt to ease the tension between them.

A sudden shriek made him stand bolt upright; the goblet slipped from his hand and clattered to the floor, sending its rich red contents soaring. He sped out into the bath room, squinting through the haze of steam; a dark figure ran along the back wall, knocking aside the women in his path. One girl hit the ground hard, head colliding with the stone floor with a sickening crack.

Atem's instincts as a _politzer_, honed by years of training, kicked in and sent him tearing after the criminal before he could think better of it. Dimly, as if from a great distance, he could hear the sound of Téa screaming at him to stop, but even in his female form, he couldn't have ignored his duty if he wanted to.

He caught up with the black-clad man in the back corner of the room, tackled him from behind, looped his arm around the criminal's neck and pushed his head forward. Normally, the criminal would have passed out within a few seconds. But Atem had forgotten how much weaker he was now. The criminal grabbed him by the arm and flipped him around like a doll, sending him crashing into the wall; he gasped as pain shot through his shoulder. He staggered, and the criminal leapt at him, pinning him to the ground by sitting on his stomach.

Atem bucked and squirmed and fought to free himself, but the man was too heavy, and Atem was too frail. The man's large, rough hand made its way to his neck and began to close around his slender throat. He beat at the man's thick arm, gasping for every breath. Darkness began to creep into the edges of his vision.

"Damn it," he coughed. He could die if he stayed this way. Cursing his luck, he reached for the enchanted ring and ripped it from his finger with a mighty pull.

The criminal recoiled in horror at his sudden transformation, and Atem took advantage of his surprise, throwing him to the side and straddling him as Atem threw heavy punches. He pounced his fist into the man's nose until it was bloodied and disfigured, then used the tie of his robe to bind the man's hands behind his back.

Sucking wind, he stumbled to his feet and wiped the splatters of blood from his face. Then he glanced up and froze like a deer in place, eyes as wide as dinner plates. Téa had come after him, probably to help him, and from the look of disgust on her face, he was sure that she'd seen everything.

He quickly grabbed at his robe, holding it closed with his hand. "Téa…"

She crossed her arms tightly over her stomach as if nauseated. "… Oh my God," she breathed.

"Téa, please, let me explain—"

"Explain?" she whispered. "Explain!?" she demanded, her voice rising to a shriek. "You—you saw—I—" She choked a bit, too furious for words. "What—what kind of person would do something like this? How could you do something like this?" she asked, in a tone of disbelief. "What? Was looking up girls' skirts and groping their chests not good enough for you anymore?"

Atem swallowed hard, eyes downcast; shame pressed down on him so heavily he worried he might suffocate beneath its weight. He knew there was nothing—

Wait. The ring. Where was the ring? Panic shot through his heart as he wheeled around in search of it, then fell to his knees, crawling around on all fours in pursuit of the lost item. "No, no, no, no…" Atem said. The dread in his heart doubled and redoubled with the passage of each awful second. Where was it? It had to be around here somewhere, didn't it? Rings didn't just disappear, did they?

"I can't believe this. Look at me when I'm talking to you!" Téa snarled from behind him as he groped around in every corner and crevasse. "Or is it no fun now that I'm dressed?"

Atem's terror and adrenaline combined in a sudden, white-hot burst of anger, and he spun at her; she flinched away from him with a short cry of fear. "Do you really think this is what I wanted? Do you think I care so much about your breasts that I'd grow a pair of my own? Do you think you all are the only ones in the world who want a hot bath after work? Oh, but how could I have forgotten, all men are perverts, all men want is sex, isn't that what you told me? But if you're really all that angry, please, do me a favor; do me a favor and kill me, please, because it will be better than what he'll do to me when he finds out I lost it. 'Don't lose it, Atem, promise me,' he said, 'promise me you won't lose it.' Yes, just go ahead and kill me, please, because when he finds out I've lost his ring, he's going to turn me into a dairy cow for the rest of my life!"

Téa stared at him as he panted, exhausted and winded by his outburst. "Your name's Atem?" she asked quietly.

Atem buried his face in his hands. This day couldn't get any worse. Now she knew his real name as well as his real face; lovely. He supposed he was going to get fired now. It was just was well. Dairy cows made poor _politzers_.

His head snapped up as he heard the establishment's owner enter the room, attracted by the ruckus. He cursed and edged toward a unobtrusive back entrance, abandoning the ring and leaving Téa there staring at him. It was terribly cold outside in only the robe, but he didn't dare venture back inside so that he could retrieve his clothes; he was in enough trouble already. Shivering, he ran barefoot along the rough dirt road, praying that no one would see him as he made his way to his house.


	4. Chapter 4

Again Atem found himself lurking outside Yugi's door, but this time his hesitancy was born not from shame, but from dread, and from a wretched fear of what Yugi might do to him. Yugi had told him endless horror stories about the curses and cursed objects he'd encountered over the course of his career. Memories of all those despicable devices came flooding back to him now; he might be on the receiving end of any number of them. Lost the ring. Lost a six-thousand _korona _ring. He was such an incredible idiot.

Readying himself with a short, sharp breath, he opened the door, slipping into the lobby. Yugi was already present, speaking with a woman who held a small red fox in her arms. He glanced up at Atem, beamed, and Atem managed a frail, tremulous smile in return. "Just a minute, okay?" Yugi told him, leading the woman and her fox over to the alcove full of potions. "Make sure he drinks all of it," he said, handing them a glass bottle of a clear liquid and escorting them back to the door. "Bad curse. Keeps coming back, like a weed," Yugi said, after the pair had left the building. "If this doesn't work I'll have to try a contra-curse, so keep your fingers crossed. Those things are a pain."

"I'm sure," Atem rasped, throat tight with anxiety. Yugi frowned at his tone. "Could we… go somewhere?" he asked. "Preferably somewhere with a large number of, um… witnesses?"

"Witnesses?" Yugi asked.

"Just so it will be quite clear who was responsible for my, uh, murder," Atem said, cringing. Yugi stared at him, shaking his head in confusion. "It's… it's about the ring."

Yugi blinked, and from the sudden whiteness of his knuckles, Atem could tell he'd already worked out the reason for Atem's strange behavior. "You lost the ring," Yugi stated. His voice was unnervingly soft. Atem tried to say something, anything, to apologize, but it was as if an invisible vise was squeezing his throat closed. He nodded mutely, and for a moment, Yugi didn't say a word.

"YOU LOST THE RING!?" Yugi exploded, sending Atem reeling backward.

"I'll get it back, I will; I just need a little… assistance…" Atem's voice died away, killed by the flames of anger that burned hotly in Yugi's eyes. "I lost it at the bathhouse last night. We were attacked and I couldn't fight in my female form."

"Someone attacked a bathhouse?" Yugi asked, raising an eyebrow and sounding skeptical.

"Oh come on, Yugi, if I was going to lie, don't you think I would have come up with something more plausible?" Atem sighed. He leaned against the tabletop and rubbed at his eyes. A headache had grown up behind them. "I should never have done this," he said quietly.

Yugi seemed taken aback by his reaction. "Don't feel _that_ bad about it," he said. "I'm not actually going to curse you or anything." Then he paused briefly in that. "Not permanently, anyway."

"It's not that; it's…" Atem shook his head. "Téa… saw me change back."

"Oh." Yugi stuck out his bottom lip in a sympathetic expression. "I'm guessing that didn't go very well."

The look of revulsion on her face still haunted Atem in his sleep. "Needless to say, I'll be needing a different woman's body this time around. Just in case we cross paths," he said, though he'd already decided he'd return to the bathhouse in the early morning, when Téa was still asleep after a long night at the Nocturne.

"Sure. Stop by here before you go and I'll make sure you're set up," Yugi told him, Then his gentle tone vanished, replaced with something disturbingly vindictive. "In the meantime, you owe me big time; come on," he said, grabbing Atem by the arm and hauling him down into the cellar. "Take your shirt off and lie down on the bed," he instructed.

Atem obeyed without protest, expecting—or at least hoping—that Yugi didn't have anything too horrible planned for him. The mattress was lumpy and hard as a rock when Atem laid down on it; and he wondered why Yugi, with all his money, hadn't purchased one more comfortable. "Please just promise me it won't be anything too vile," he said. He deserved whatever Yugi had in store, he was well aware, but that didn't mean he was anxious to get turned into a snail.

"Relax; it's just human to dog," Yugi said, as he fished around in one of his cabinets. "So who robs a bathhouse?" he asked, pulling on a pair of gloves and sitting on a wooden stool by Atem's side. In his hands he held was looked like a brush and a small container of black ink.

"I don't know," Atem replied. "I had to leave after I incapacitated him, and I haven't heard about it at the _politz_ office." Which was odd, with a case so unusual; _politzers_ could be worse gossips than housewives. Something should have come up.

He flinched when the icy ink-soaked brush made contact with his flesh. "So you didn't see him arrested?" Yugi asked. "This might itch a little bit."

A little bit? Atem felt like bugs had infested his skin. He reached back to scratch at it, and his eyes widened in shock as his fingers made contact with a thick tuft of fur. It was still a bit wet from the ink, which stained his fingertips. A few seconds later, the nails on that hand lengthened into dark claws. "What—what's your point?" Atem asked, trying to get the ink off his fingers and succeeded only in spreading to his arm. Grey-brown hair grew up over his bicep like grass.

"Maybe the criminal didn't make it to the _politz _office," Yugi suggested.

"You think he escaped?" Atem asked, as Yugi smeared more ink onto his ear. He supposed that wasn't an outrageous suggestion. After all, the criminal had only been bound with a bit of cotton cloth. When Yugi made his reply, it sounded garbled and faint, like sounds heard underwater. "What was that?"

"NOT NECESSARILY ESCAPED—"

"Oh, Yugi!" Atem exclaimed, clutching at his ears—one of which had become pointed and fuzzy. "Softly, please…"

Looking thrilled by this development, Yugi scribbled something down in a small notebook, hand flying across the paper. "Not necessarily escaped," Yugi repeated, this time in a breathy whisper. "What if somebody set him free, or something?"

Atem's brow furrowed. "You're suggesting he had an accomplice?" he asked. Yugi shrugged, then grabbed the back of Atem's pants and tugged downward. "Yugi—!"

"One last test," Yugi said lightly. He spread a final swath of ink across Atem's coccyx, waited a second, and then made a pouting face. "Aw," he moaned. "There's supposed to be a tail there!" With a huff of frustration, he jotted down a few more notes and tossed the paintbrush into a bucket of water.

Hiking his pants back up over the hairy patch, Atem pushed himself up and sat on his knees. An accomplice? That was an interesting thought. What would anyone possibly want with a bathhouse?

But he was getting far ahead of himself; he wasn't even sure if the criminal had escaped in the first place. He'd check at the office tomorrow, after these claws and dog ears had faded, and see if this was something he really needed to worry about. "Is that all?" he asked.

"For today," Yugi replied ominously, before retreating to a chair in the corner, where he sat and began to ponder over the details in his notebook.


	5. Chapter 5

Téa pulled off her dress, scrubbed herself clean, and rose to head into the humid pool room of the bathhouse. And again, just like every night she came to the Sea Gardens, she found herself squinting through the steam, searching for some sign of Anna.

But Anna didn't exist, she reminded herself; Anna wasn't real. Anna was a construct invented by another grotesque guy who'd only wanted to see her naked. God, she couldn't stand the thought of what he'd done, turning into a girl just to deceive her! And at the same time, even as her fury at Atem left a bitter, sour taste in her mouth, she realized how much she missed him. Was he all right? she wondered. Had his magician friend done anything too horrible to him? He'd made it sound like the lost ring had been quite valuable. She wondered if he'd ever come back to get it.

Curiosity drew her over to the corner where the ring had fallen, and she knelt down, eyes sweeping across the floor. A memory flashed into her mind—Atem's outburst when she'd yelled at him, his indignation, which had seemed so genuine. It had shocked her; she'd expected shame or indifference. It made her wonder whether he really had been truthful about his motives..

Now that she thought about it, he really had tried hard not to stare, hadn't he? And even when she'd pressed herself up against him, he'd seemed more mortified than aroused. Compared to some of the men she worked with, who started salivating even when she stood before them fully clothed, Anna—no, _Atem_—had shown enormous self-control.

Still, she thought, turning red—he'd seen her _naked_! And perhaps worse, he'd seen her when her guard was down. She'd scratched her stomach and picked her teeth and eaten like a pig in front of him; the embarrassment of it all made her face burn like a coal. No wonder he hadn't been aroused by her; she'd probably disgusted him. He'd probably never look at a woman the same way again.

A flash of gold suddenly caught her eye, and she grinned as she discovered the glittering ornament wedged between two floor boards. Prying it free with her fingertips, she inspected it. It was very small, very shiny, and surprisingly cold to the touch.

She should return it, she knew; it wasn't hers to keep no matter how much she could have used the money. But she didn't know where Atem lived or how to find him, and asking around town was out of the question. Her reputation as a woman of virtue was already on its last leg; inquiring after a foreigner would hobble it permanently.

He had mentioned a sorcerer, though, a young man by the name of Yugi. Someone with that kind of special talent wouldn't be hard to locate. So after a quick soak, she dressed and ran down to the marketplace, where the shop owners directed her to a cabin on the outskirts of town.

"Is this right?" she asked herself, frowning at the quaint little cottage. It didn't look very magical, and there wasn't a shop sign in sight. She stepped forward to test the doorknob; it wasn't locked, so she peeked inside. "Hello?" she called. The room was devoid of customers, and a pit of uneasiness began to form in her stomach.

Téa crept into the room and eased the door shut behind her. Potions lined a set of shelves in the corner; that was encouraging, although she didn't like the looks of that banner. "THIEVES WILL BE PUNISHED." A shiver ran down her spine as she thought about what the words might have been implying.

She jumped when someone entered through a back door, a boy who was smiling warmly. he was smaller than most children, wild-haired, with violet eyes that made him look a little less than human. "Hi," he said. "What can I do for you?"

"Yugi?" Téa asked. He nodded. "I found something I think might belong to you, um… Here." She walked over and dropped the ring into his palm.

His eyes lit up. "You found it; thank you!" he said. "But how did you—" He stopped short, then smiled ruefully. "You must be Téa," he said.

She glanced aside, clasping her hands behind her back. "She—he mentioned me, I'm guessing?" she replied. She wasn't sure whether to be flattered or horrified.

"A few times," Yugi said. "He didn't go to gawk, you know. I wouldn't have give him the ring, if he had."

She gritted her teeth, eager to argue the point with him, but not sure she wanted to risk angering a magician. "I haven't seen him in a while," she said.

"Yeah. I think he feels bad he made you upset," Yugi told her. He looked at her for a moment, eyes narrowed as if he were studying her. Téa fidgeted anxiously under his gaze. "I'm making lunch for him today; he should be here in a couple of minutes. You can stay and join us, if you want."

"Oh, no, I really couldn't," she said quickly, backing toward the door. The idea of seeing Atem's face again filled her with an odd mixture of nervousness and dread.

"It will give me a chance to get together your finder's fee," Yugi called out before she could get to the door. Téa froze.

"Finder's fee?" she asked, trying not to see overly excited.

"Sure. The ring's worth kind of a lot, so I don't think five hundred _korona _would be out of the question." Téa nearly fainted. Five hundred! With that kind of money, she might finally be able to quit the Nocturne for good…

"You know what? Maybe I will stay," she said, with a light laugh, smoothing out her skirt and taking a seat on one of the benches.

"And anything you want is on the house, of course," Yugi continued. He laughed. "Except the ring, obviously!"

Téa smiled. For all his lies, Atem had been telling the truth about Yugi; he did have a disarming quality. Though it was bizarre to be around someone so powerful, she found she felt strangely unafraid. "So what kind of products do you offer?"

"Everything most people can think of," Yugi answered, brightening instantly. So he liked talking about work, Téa noted; good. Those kind of men were easy to keep happy. "And if I don't have it, I'll try my best to make it."

"Has there ever been a request you couldn't meet?" Téa asked him.

"A few. But I haven't given up yet," Yugi said. "There's one I've been working on for a couple of years—hybridization metamorphosis, so people can turn into mythical creatures like mermaids or centaurs. I've figured out an easy way to manage the localized surface transformations, but the big problem had been integrating the disparate anatomies."

"I see," Téa said.

Yugi stared at her. "I'm impressed," he said. "People have a tendency to drift off when I start rambling."

Téa chuckled. "To be honest with you, you lost me at 'localized surface transformations,'" she admitted. "But I think I get the gist of it" She rose, wandered over to the display of potions. "'Thieves will be punished,' what does that mean?" she asked, examining the diversely colored liquids. Good Lord, they were expensive—ten _korona _for just one day's supply.

"I've coded a curse into the glass that I remove whenever the potion is sold. If someone drinks the potion while the curse is still on there, whatever change they chose becomes permanent," Yugi explained. Immediately, Téa jerked her hand away from a human to deer transformation. "Usually if a bottle goes missing, I find an animal scrabbling at the door a week later or so."

"Do you change them back?"

"Always. Eventually," Yugi added, with a soft smile. "I'll let them panic for a day or so, just so the message sinks in. I don't want to be mean, but it's important people don't treat these things lightly. They can be really dangerous. It's why I charge so much, if you were wondering." He cocked his head, watching her closely. "Would you like to try anything?"

"What? What, oh, no," she replied, shaking her head and blushing. "Unless you have something that can shrink my index toe…"

"Pardon?"

"Oh, it's longer than my big one, makes dancing—"

She was cut off when the front door opened. "So I checked at the _politz_ office. Turns out…" Atem walked in, caught sight of Téa, and turned white as a sheet. Her stomach tightened with an unexpected feeling of anxiety.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi." Yugi glanced between them. The tension in the air was thicker than blood. "Did you… did you come to see Yugi, or…?"

"The ring. I found it; I returned it," Téa answered.

"Oh," Atem said, nodding. "That's a relief. Thank you." Téa delicately coughed to clear her throat.

"I invited her to stay for lunch," Yugi chirped.

"You—" Atem wheeled on him, eyes wide with disbelief at his friend's betrayal. "Yugi, may I speak with you in your office, for a moment?" Without waiting for a reply, he took Yugi by the wrist and hauled him into a distant room. Before he disappeared behind the door, Téa thought she saw Yugi grinning.


	6. Chapter 6

"Have you lost your mind?" Atem shouted.

"She can hear you," Yugi pointed out, and Atem took a step closer to him, lowering his voice to a hiss.

"Have you lost your mind? Or is this just another punishment for losing that stupid ring?" Atem demanded. "It is, isn't it? You're doing this to punish me!"

"Atem, no," Yugi said firmly. Atem spun away from him and pressed his hands to his face, as if praying for salvation. "I don't think she's as mad at you as you think she is," he said. "I think she actually kind of missed you." Atem turned back to him, forehead creasing. "She's been thinking about you, for days. She wouldn't have looked for the ring this morning, if she hadn't."

"You have no way of knowing that for sure," Atem told him. But a spark of hope and encouragement came to life inside him, startling him. He hadn't expected that Téa's opinion of him would matter so much. "Well. I suppose it will give us a chance to clear the air, if that's even possible. Though you'd better have whipped up something delicious if you expect me to stick around for this torment."

"Don 't worry. The bread alone will make it all worthwhile," Yugi chuckled. "Come on; I'll go get it."

He headed for the door, but Atem was frozen in place. "I'm not entirely sure I can go back out there," he said.

Yugi grinned and shoved him back out into the lobby; he stumbled into Téa presence, barely regaining his footing before he fell. "Talk to her," Yugi whispered to him. Then he retreated down into his cellar, leaving Atem and Téa alone.

"So," Atem began lamely. She folded her hands in front of her and glanced away with a faint sigh. "I never got the chance to apologize. I'm sorry."

Téa looked at him for a moment, probably debating whether to forgive him. "According to Yugi, you really did go just for the baths," she said. He swallowed, unsure how to reply. "I knew the Sea Gardens were amazing, but I didn't think they were worth… what you did… to yourself."

Atem opened his mouth, then quickly shut it, thinking better of what he was about to say. "What?" Téa asked him.

"It's just that I'm… not the only man to have done what I did," Atem said. Téa processed that statement for a second, then made a gagging motion.

"I guess it's safe to say I'm never going back there. Ever, in life," Téa said. "They need to make one for men."

"Yes."

"Maybe I should take my finder's fee and build one," she chortled. Atem smiled thinly in reply.

_What on earth is taking Yugi so long? _Atem thought to himself. If he didn't know better, he'd have suspected Yugi was stalling on purpose.

Téa looked down at the floor, played with her fingernails. "Was anything you told me true?" she asked. "Besides everything about Yugi."

"Almost everything," Atem said. "My heritage, my family, my… difficulty finding someone willing to look past my skin color. I'm not a woodswoman… obviously.. but everything else was true." She nodded.

There was a minute of silence. "He's been down there awhile, huh?" Téa said. "What's he doing?"

"Getting lunch together, I think," Atem answered. "But generally speaking the meal is well worth the wait. Just don't expect to recognize anything you're eating."

"It's not going to turn me into anything, is it? The food," Téa said.

Atem smiled. "No."

"It's just you know the saying: don't eat anything a sorcerer offers you," Téa explained.

"It's a good rule of thumb. But if Yugi wanted to enchant you, he wouldn't need to go through this rigmarole." Atem leaned back against the table, finally starting to feel comfortable again. "He's something of a prodigy, as I understand it. Or perhaps idiot savant is a better label; his talent for other magical disciplines is somewhat limited."

At long last, Yugi emerged from the cellar, bearing in hand a great silver tray and a larger leather pouch that jingled when shaken. "Could you take this, please? Thanks," Yugi said, passing the platter to Atem. "This is for you," he said, extending the wallet to Téa. She peeked inside the bag and swayed like she was on the verge of passing out.

"Thank you," she croaked, pressing a hand to her stomach to steady herself.

Atem shifted the tray to his left hand and opened the front door with his right, bringing the food outside so they could eat in the warmth of the sun. Removing a checked kerchief from the pocket of his shirt, Yugi shook it out, and suddenly it lengthened and widened. By the time he lowered it onto the grass, it was the size of a blanket.

Atem examined Yugi closely as he knelt and unveiled their lunch. He couldn't shake the nagging feeling that he was being manipulated somehow. But what Yugi might have to gain from this business, he couldn't decipher. "Smells good," Téa declared, holding back her hair as she leaned forward and sniffed in the food's rich aroma. "Not sure what it is, but it smells good."

Innocent-looking triangles of flat bread were arranged in a circle, surrounding a bowl of some foreign pink paste that was flecked with bits of red and dark green. Seeds and dried bits of fruit had been scattered across the tray, mingled with bright orange flowers that looked like decoration until Yugi reached forward and ate one. A silver pitcher held a liquid that was a grim shade of grey-green, but it smelled sweet, like grape juice and apples.

Ravenous, Atem didn't hesitate to dig in; he'd starved himself for the past two days so he could properly appreciate the exotic feast. He ate one of the bread triangles by itself; it was incredibly soft and had a buttery flavor. Then he dipped a second triangle into the pink paste. Whatever it was, it was mildly salty and smooth like soft cheese. "Excellent as ever, Yugi," Atem told him.

He glanced over at Téa to see if she was enjoying her meal, dismayed to see her nibbling at a nut like someone who was vaguely nauseated. After a scant number of bites and barely a sip of the strange juice, she rested her hands in her lap, seemingly full.

"You can eat freely," Atem reminded her. "I know you're still hungry." She flushed and fidgeted, looking conflicted. "I can put the ring back on if it makes you more comfortable," he added with a grin.

Téa let out a strained laugh and grabbed at another piece of bread. "I guess there's still a part of my brain that doesn't realize you and Anna are the same person," she admitted. Another blush reddened her cheeks, as if the embarrassment of everything they'd done together had come back afresh. "Was it weird?" she asked, looking up at him. "Being… you know…"

"At first?" Atem said, frowning. "Certainly. Though not as much as I'd expected."

"Really?"

"I'd always imagined that women were these fragile, ephemeral creatures, like… butterflies or hummingbirds. But when I first put the ring on, I didn't even realize I'd changed until I looked down at myself. Men and women aren't nearly so different as I used to believe," Atem said. Yugi, who'd been listening closely, gave a few nods of agreement.

They ate until the last bite of food was gone. Téa rose to her feet, protectively clutching her wallet like it was a newborn babe. "Thank you very much for the lunch, Yugi. It really was excellent," Téa told him. Yugi beamed. Then she turned to Atem and pressed her lips together. "I'm not going to apologize for being mad at you."

"As well you shouldn't," Atem said quietly, not sure where she was going.

"But—I am glad we had the chance to talk," she said. "Clear things up."

Atem blinked, surprised by how quickly her anger had dissipated. Maybe Yugi had been right about her after all. "As am I," he said.

Téa bit her lip. The look of hesitancy was unusually alluring on her. "I wouldn't mind doing it again," she said. With a short bow of her head to Yugi, she hiked up her skirts and hurried off, cheeks glowing scarlet.

Atem sat shell-shocked. Yugi seemed ecstatic. "See?" Yugi said, poking Atem in the knee.

"She—she clearly meant she wouldn't mind having one of your lunches again," Atem said, flustered.

"You should bring her flowers," Yugi said. He tilted his head thoughtfully. "Or sweetmeats. She's got kind of a big appetite when she gets going, doesn't she?"

"I can't. I couldn't; it would be entirely inappropriate," Atem stammered.

"She just invited you to see her again; who cares about inappropriate?" Yugi retorted. He leaned forward and looked Atem in the eyes. "Atem. She doesn't care you're from the south. Isn't this exactly what you've been looking for?"

"Yugi, I don't want our entire relationship to grow out of my deception!" Atem hissed. "The only reason she even knows my name is because of what I did!"

"So what?" Yugi asked. Atem clenched his teeth, positive he had a decent counter-argument but unable to articulate it. He wasn't sure why it was wrong, but it was. And he wasn't going to compromise his morals to appease his baser nature; not again, not this time.

"Please don't ask me about it again," Atem said softly. And hopefully, with that, he could put the matter behind him for good.

Yugi worked his jaw for a moment, as if he were chewing on something. But he respected Atem's wishes and said not more about it. "You said you checked in at the _politz_ office?" he asked.

"Oh, yes—no one knew anything about the criminal at the bathhouse," Atem said. "He must have escaped, though I'm not sure how he could have slipped out without anyone's noticed. The proprietor was only a few feet… away…" His voice trailed off as he lost himself in thought. Why hadn't the proprietor notified the _politz_? She'd seen the crime, spoken with witnesses, attended to the injured girl; she could hardly claim ignorance. Even if she hadn't let the culprit go herself, even if she'd only kept the incident secret to protect her business, she could still be charged with obstruction of justice.

But to bring a case against her, he'd need some sort of evidence, some witnesses. He'd need some way to explain how he'd learned about the incident in the first place. Atem sighed. That meant that unless he wanted to start a complicated back-and-forth between his male and female personas, he would need to ask Téa for her help. Lord, just when he thought he was finished with her…

"Yugi, I… may need to borrow the ring again, if that's all right. Just in case I need to get back into the bathhouse or speak with the owner again," Atem said.

"Oh, all right," Yugi said, pulling the ring out of his pocket and tossing it over. "But really try to keep your eye on it this time, okay? Please?"

"I will. If I have to wear it night and day, I will," Atem swore. He doubted his heart would withstand the stress if he misplaced the enchanted ornament a second time.


	7. Chapter 7

Téa sifted through the gold _korona _with her fingers, listening to the thin coins clink together as she thought. She'd have to do something with the money eventually; she couldn't keep it under her mattress to be stolen. But investing it with the bankers would just attract suspicion. No one would believe a stripper had come into this kind of fortune honestly.

She was still debating the matter when she heard a knock on the door. Heart leaping into her throat, she hastily scooped the coins back into the wallet. "Just a second!" she called, prying up the loose floorboard under her bed and tossing the coin purse into the dark crevasse underneath. Then she glanced into the mirror, straightened her hair, smoothed out her dress, and pulled the front door open.

A young woman in a white dress and tight brown bodice stood just outside the doorway. She was abnormally tall, almost six feet, with thick black hair that went past her shoulders and skin that was darkly tanned. "Anna," Téa said. She shook her head. "Atem. Sorry…"

"I didn't want to come over in my normal form," Atem said. She—no, _he_, Téa reminded herself—looked more than a little uneasy. "A man. A foreigner. Coming over to a single woman's house unaccompanied. I wasn't sure how it would look."

"Thanks," Téa said, leaning against the doorframe. "Oh, um, come on in…" She stepped away, leaving him room to enter, and played with the skirt of her dress anxiously as he stepped inside and glanced about the room. She'd never earned much in tips at the Nocturne; as a result, her home was rundown and sparsely furnished, clothes patched and re-patched a dozen times. "Would you like some tea?"

"No, thank you, I'm afraid I didn't come to stay for long," Atem answered. "I… I know I have no right, but I wanted to ask a favor of you."

"Oh." She felt a startling wave of disappointment. "What do you need?"

"I need someone who can make an official witness statement regarding what occurred at the bathhouse the other night. Omitting my involvement, of course," Atem said. "I'm hoping to start an investigation and track down the culprit."

Investigation? "You're a _politzer_?" Téa asked. No wonder he'd taken that awful man down so quickly. "But I thought you'd caught him already?"

"So did I. But he never made it to the jail, and none of my coworkers have heard anything about him," Atem told her. "Could you tell me exactly what happened? After I, um… fled."

"Sure, yeah, uh… I was kind of in shock, so when you left I froze, for a minute. Then the bathhouse owner, Jeannine—she asked us to help the girl into the lounge, the one who hit her head. Then she asked us to leave. She didn't want the girl to be overwhelmed, what with everyone crowding around her and everything."

"And no one contacted the _politzers_?" Atem asked. Téa felt a stab of guilt as she shook her head.

"I guess we all just assumed someone else would do it," Téa admitted softly.

Atem nodded. "It's not uncommon," he told her. "Do you remember if the criminal was still there when you left?"

"I think so. I think so, yes," Téa answered.

Atem sighed and crossed his arms. As he did, he glanced down at his chest, as if he was still unaccustomed to the extra mass there. "I'll need to interview her," he said.

"The girl?"

"The bathhouse owner—Jeannine, you said? There's a possibility that she was involved in the criminal's escape. I'd like to hear her version of things, though how I'll get her to be honest with me, I don't know. No matter which way you cut it, she neglected to report a crime to the _politz_; she could be brought to court," Atem muttered, running his thumb thoughtfully over his soft bottom lip. "I could go to her like this, try to avoid the routine clamming-up that occurs whenever someone learns what I do. But that still doesn't guarantee that she'll tell me the truth."

"Oh! Yugi—Yugi told me something, he said"—Téa snapped her fingers, summoning the recollection to the forefront of her mind—"he said he knew for sure that you hadn't come to the bathhouse to peep."

"Yes, he has some sort of enchanted pen, I think," Atem said, waving a hand. "And I'm sure he'd be more than happy to help, but the Ivrolyn justice system dismisses all evidence acquired by magic. Apparently it can be manipulated too easily."

"Oh." Téa hung her head. "Sorry. I'm out of ideas."

Atem chuckled. "It's all right," he said. "I appreciate your trying to help. I'll figure it out." A brief silence fell between them; Atem broke it by cleaned his throat. "I suppose I should be going."

"Right."

"Thank you once again for your help," he said, edging toward the door.

He was just about to step outside when her mouth outpaced her brain, and she blurted, "Would you like to come over for dinner sometime?" Atem froze, looking like someone had suddenly bashed him on the head, and Téa's eyes went wide as saucers. What was the matter with her? Why had she said something like that? He obviously wasn't interested in her; he'd only come over for business. And he _should_ have been avoiding her; he _should_ have felt ashamed of himself. He'd violated her privacy and lied to her so completely.

But at the same time, oddly, his deception had drawn them closer than she'd ever been with a man before. He'd seen her true self, her gross habits and her coarse speech, and he didn't seem to care about any of it. He'd seen her naked and tried his hardest not to stare. "I'm not much of a cook compared to Yugi," Téa continued quietly. "But I make a decent deer stew. And since I quit the bathhouse, I… could use the company."

"Téa," Atem said, blinking. "I'm honored. I'm flattered, but, um…" He gestured down at himself, plucked at the skirt of his dress. "Are you quite certain?"

"You can take the ring off when you're inside. If you want," Téa added quickly. "I'm not saying you _have _to—"

"I will," Atem said.

"Good," Téa breathed, though she tried not to seem too relieved. Anna and Atem were the same person deep down, she knew, but having a romantic dinner with another girl was simply too much for her to handle. "Maybe this Saturday night?"

"I would like that," Atem replied. "I'll see you then… I suppose." Then he turned and rushed out the door, leaving Téa to wonder what on earth she should wear.


	8. Chapter 8

Atem tugged the ring off as he slipped away from Téa's front door, the transformation washing over him in a sudden wave. Dinner, unchaperoned, in a woman's house! He felt dirty just thinking about it. Perhaps he should turn right around and call the whole thing off. Perhaps he should invite Yugi to join them, lighten the pressure. Perhaps he should go as a woman and pretend there was nothing romantic to their get-together.

He gritted his teeth, banging his forehead against the rough trunk of the nearest pine tree. What was he thinking? A beautiful woman had asked him to eat, and here he was trying to ace himself out of it. Obviously she wanted him to court her, so he decided he'd go all out—dress nicely, bring flowers and a gift.

But money was short and payday was a ways away; how was he supposed to afford dress clothes and a fancy present? Yugi would give him the money if he asked for it, he was sure, but the thought of taking charity revolted him. Particularly in this case. What good was a present if you didn't sacrifice something to give it?

He'd ask Yugi for work. The magician was always in need of test subjects; most everyone escaped his experiments unharmed. And even if there was lasting damage, his pay would be tripled. There was really no downside.

First, however, he'd stop by the Sea Gardens and see what he could learn from this Jeannine. Regardless of his financial situation, he was still a _politzer _first and a guinea pig second. Adjusting the trousers and loose long-sleeved shirt that had reappeared on his male body, he headed to the bathhouse. It looked dull and uninviting in the daylight, windows dark and front door tightly shut up.

Atem stepped around to the employee entrance and rapped on the thick wood door with his knuckles, removing his badge from his pocket. A few seconds passed before the proprietor appeared to greet him; she was a strict-looking woman in a plain tawny ankle-length dress, mouth set in an eternal scowl, hair tied back in a bun so tight Atem wondered how the dark locks hadn't ripped right out of her skull. "This facility does not serve men," she told him curtly with an expression of mild disdain. She quickly moved to shut the door, but froze when he held up his badge for her inspection, the small silver token flashing in the sun.

He wouldn't have thought it possible, but her glower actually intensified. "How can I help you, officer?" she asked, voice tight.

"I've received word that an incident took place here some nights ago. I'm afraid I'll need to inspect the area and ask you a few questions," Atem told her. "It shouldn't take longer than an hour."

She blinked, face purposefully blank. "Someone told you that?" she asked. Atem nodded. "Who was it?" she inquired, in a transparent tone of innocent curiosity.

"The individual has chosen to keep their identity private," Atem said. "Please step aside."

With a huff of anger, she moved out of his way to allow him entry. He took a few glances around the room for show and then moved on to the bath room, where he knew the incident had taken place. "May I ask what was the nature of the accusation?" Jeannine asked as she trailed behind him.

"A break-in, resulting in minor injury to one of your customers," Atem murmured. He crouched down and examined the floor where the girl had hit her head. "Does that sound at all familiar?"

"I'm sorry. It doesn't," Jeannine told him, though she began to wring her thin hands.

Atem removed a pencil from his breast pocket and pried a bit of dried blood out of a crack between the floorboards. "I wonder if all your customers would say the same," he said, holding up the dark brown lump.

The blood drained from her face, leaving her pale as a ghost. "If you tell me what happened now, I may be able to ameliorate your sentence," Atem said softly.

She said nothing, motionless except for a nervous swallow. Then her bottom lip began to quiver, making her hard self seem for a moment shockingly vulnerable. "It doesn't matter," she told him in a whisper. "I'm already dead."

Atem's brow furrowed. "Has someone threatened you?" he asked. "If you require protection—"

"Please don't make me any promises. You don't know this man," Jeannine managed.

"Who is he?" Atem asked, standing to face her.

"The devil," she said. "Not that you'd know it to look at him. A sorcerer. I sought him out, believe it or not. I was looking for a way to make my business more profitable, and… he seemed so sweet. Young boy. Barely twenty. Very polite."

Atem stared at her, evaluating what she'd said. "So the reason the Sea Gardens are so popular…"

She nodded. Her shoulders had sunk to give her a defeated posture. "Magic. Perception alteration and mind control. His specialty."'

It was all Atem could do not to let out a sigh of relief. So his preoccupation with the Sea Gardens was a symptom of sorcery and not of some despicable compulsion. _Téa might be happy to hear the news, too… _he thought, secretly hoping the revelation might improve her opinion of him.

"I gave him the payment we agreed on, but he kept asking for more. Threatening to expose what I'd done. I gave him almost everything I had," she continued. "Eventually I told him to go ahead. Tell everyone about our agreement. I was so tired of it all. I said I'd rather have my reputation brought to ruin than stay on his leash. Instead—instead he sends his attack dogs here and hurts and humiliates my girls. Trying to take back what I bought from him."

She wrapped her arms around herself, shaky with a mixture of fear and fury; Atem took her by the shoulder. "Miss," he said. "There are rooms at the _politz _station—places where witnesses can stay and be kept safe from the people who wish them harm, even from sorcerers."

"Not from him," she said, shaking her head frantically. "No one is safe from him."

"You don't know that for sure."

"And you don't know for sure you can protect me!" Jeannine exclaimed. "I've dug my grave, officer; let me lie in it. Before anyone else gets hurt because of me." Atem frowned at her, but before he could make another attempt to persuade her, she gestured to the door at the back of the room. "The items he was looking for are stored in the boiler room. Here," she said, removing a small gold key from the pocket of her skirts and extending it to him. "You may take what you like."

He took the key from her, then stared at her until she was forced to make eye contact. "Are you certain that you don't want me to make provisions for you?" he asked.

She turned away from him slowly. "If you're so eager to do me a favor, officer," she told him, "kill the bastard. He goes by the name Bakura."


	9. Chapter 9

Atem unlocked the door to the boiler room, lighting and removing the lantern that hung on the wall at the top of the stairs. _Bakura_. A sorcerer's name if he ever heard one. If he'd been formally trained at Redostrin and not self-taught like Yugi, someone in the magical community might be able to help locate him. Arresting this "devil," on the other hand, would be far less straightforward. There were devices—collars and shackles—designed to suppress a wizard's magic, but getting the magician to actually don the item was like getting a cat into a cold bath. He'd need help, possibly the whole squadron.

A monstrous metal contraption waited for him at the end of the room; fat brass cauldrons and an ugly array of pipes cobwebbed across the walls and ceiling. Beneath them sat a rack of coals, white with heat, mingled with ash and what looked like… gemstones? The warmth of the fire made his face ache and sweat as he stepped forward, squinting at the sparkling bits of blue and violet.

Unable to bear the heat another minute, he staggered back and scanned the room in search of a pair of tongs. He found them sitting next to a thick pair of leather gloves near the staircase and used them to pluck some of the gems out of the coal bed.

He laid them on the floor, careful not to touch them. They were shinier than anything he'd seen before, cut into bizarre geometric shapes. Magical paraphernalia, he supposed, the media by which Bakura had worked his spell on the bathhouse water. Once he was sure they had cooled, he poured them into the small burlap evidence bag he carried with him at all times, then rose and made his way out onto the street.

Briefly, he considered taking the gems straight to the _politz _office, but he still needed to speak with Yugi and it couldn't hurt to get the young man's opinion on the stones. Taking off in the direction of Yugi's cabin, he arrived a few minutes later to find the little shop bustling with activity. Curiously, the entire crowd seemed to be composed of women.

He pushed his way through the throng of females with as much gentleness as possible, locating Yugi behind the counter in the alcove in the corner. He was beaming, face red with exhilaration. "Hey!"he exclaimed, exchanging potions for _kor _at a dizzying rate. "Eighty percent off hair and eye color changes! What can I get you?"

"How about a minute of your time?" Atem called back. He could barely hear his own voice over the din.

"All out of stock!" Yugi shouted, grinning. "Store closes for lunch in a half hour! You can wait for me downstairs if you want!"

Atem's eyebrows shot up. Unsupervised in Yugi's cellar. He was surprised Yugi trusted him that much. "Here!" Yugi tossed him the fat key that gave access to his living quarters. "You can snoop if you want to, but be careful with the stuff in the armoire, okay?"

Snoop! Atem snorted in indignation. As if curiosity could ever drive him to go through another person's belongings. They were private. Interesting, but private. Fascinating, one might even say. Atem shook his head, flinging the temptation from his mind, as he descended the long staircase and strained to push open the heavy metal door. The room clean and lit, deserted but for Rachel and the horde of white bunnies.

"Hello, Rachel," Atem greeted. The former rabbit, who was sitting on the rug in front of Yugi's bed, leaned forward to sniff his hand. He petted her head for a second, then pulled away with an awkward swallow, not sure if he should treat her like a girl or like an animal. She was both and neither, really, and he wondered how Yugi acted around her when they were alone down here and unwatched.

He sat down on Yugi's bumpy mattress, watching Rachel as she idly scratched at her neck. The chest that had contained the ring was barely two feet away, and his eyes kept wandering toward it. What was _in _there? he wondered. He bit at his thumb nail, trying to curtail his interest—and failing. Yugi had told him he could snoop, after all; it would be practically criminal to ignore such an opportunity.

Almost frantically, Atem knelt down and began sifting thought the chest's contents; Rachel glanced over, intrigued by his sudden burst of activity. Much of the trunk was filled with clothes—a black hooded cloak sewn from a shiny animal pelt, a pair of socks striped orange and black, a tight leather collar from which a blue pendant dangled. He was seized by a sudden irrational temptation to put something on, to see what it'd do to him. He shoved the items away, unnerved by the odd impulse.

Toward the bottom of the chest was a purse of small freckled stones; they smelled sweet, like overripe fruit and mild wine. At their appearance, Rachel crawled forward, nostrils flaring as she smelled at the air. "Think it's edible?" Atem asked her playfully, holding up a green stone. Without warning, Rachel darted forward, snapping up the stone from between his fingers and swallowing it whole before he could stop her. "Rachel!" Atem hissed, grabbing her in a panic. First the ring and now Yugi's favorite test subject! Was he cursed?

But to his infinite relief, Rachel seemed unscathed by the strange candy, waggling her read end like a happy dog. "Warn me next time, Rachel, please," Atem said, clutching at his heart, which was still palpitating. His health couldn't bear much more of this. "I suppose they're just treats," he murmured to himself. He considered eating one, just to see what it would taste like, but overcame that urge just like the others.

Returning the items to the chest, he turned to face the black armoire that stood against the opposite wall. Despite its relatively small size, it had an imposing presence, like the way a tiny trinket could have a shadow that stretched across the room. Atem stepped forward, carefully easing open one narrow door. A shining white wedding gown hung from a hanger, beside a suit that looked big enough to fit at least two people. On a small wooden shelf, a black slug swam languidly in a glass jar of some vile-looking liquid.

He reached out to open the second door, but his hand drifted, wandering toward the gown. It was gorgeous, wasn't it, almost… dazzling, really. And the color would suit him, with his brown skin. He found himself thinking of what he would look like in it, how it would feel against his flesh, and before he knew it, he'd slipped the ring into his finger, shifting back into his female form.

He unlaced his bodice with a few quick motions, and the dress he was wearing slipped off his shoulders and fell to the floor. It couldn't hurt to try it on; it looked his size. He pulled it off the hanger, unbuttoned the back. It couldn't hurt to try it on for just a second…

Then the door opened with a metallic shriek; Yugi entered, eyes flying wide open when he came upon Atem, female and naked. "Whoa, hey!" Yugi darted over and began to wrest the dress from Atem's hands; Atem struggled against him, feeling an unfounded surge of possessiveness and anger. "Let's just put this back, okay?"

"It's mine!" Atem growled.

"Yes, fine, but how about we save it for another day, okay?"

"No; give it to me!" Atem tugged desperately at the dress, unconcerned that the delicate fabric might rip. He had to have it. He didn't know why, but he had to put it on, and no one was going to stop him, not even Yugi.

Yugi grimaced. "You'll thank me for this later!" he said, cringing. Then he released the dress, sending Atem staggering back; as Atem tried to regain his footing, Yugi snatched a bottle of clear liquid from his desk and tossed its contents into Atem's face.

Atem froze—not because he was startled, but because suddenly he couldn't move a muscle. His legs gave out beneath his weight, and he collapsed, trying and failing to cry out in pain. The chill stone floor leeched the warmth from his bare skin as he laid there, paralyzed, unable to voice his protests as Yugi shoved the dress back into the armoire.

The moment the gown was out of sight, Atem felt the feeling of frenzy vanish, replaced by a horrid embarrassment. Removing his jacket and laying it over Atem's uncovered torso, Yugi cast him a look that contained a mixture of amusement and exasperation. "Do I even have to say it?" Yugi asked. "Four-word phrase? Starts with 'I'? Ends with 'so'?" He crouched down with a grin and gave Atem a playful poke in the nose; as soon as his fingertip made contact, a rush of pins and needles spread over Atem's skin like wildfire.

"Ow," Atem managed. The return of his facilities confirmed, he scrambled to all fours, snatching up the clothing he'd discarded. "What would it have done to me?" he asked, as he struggled to tie up his bodice. He fussed with the laces for several seconds before he even thought about returning to male form. "If I'd put it on."

Yugi frowned. "I don't have any idea," he answered. A chill slithered down Atem's spine. He couldn't imagine a more frightening response. "The armoire's where I keep all the dangerous stuff. The wood is enchanted with a warding spell—catch is, it only works when the door is closed."

"I see," Atem said, voice warm with a mild anger. An important little detail that Yugi had somehow neglected to mention. He finished buttoning up his shirt, then noticed Yugi eyeing the evidence bag he'd let fall to the floor. Its collision with the ground had opened it slightly, revealing the sparkling gems within.

"Persuasion gems?" Yugi asked.

"Yes. Yes, it's what I came to speak to you about—mostly, anyway," Atem said. Yugi's brow furrowed, but Atem waved a hand. They'd talk money in a moment. "They were scattered in the coal beds of the Sea Gardens boiler room. The owner purchased them from a magician by the name of Bakura; have you heard of him?"

"Bakura? No," Yugi replied. He folded his arms, looking pained. "But…"

"I know. It's all right." Though Yugi had never gone into the particulars, he had made it clear on several occasions that he was not on good terms with the magical community.

"Someone at the university might know, though." Yugi scooped out a handful of the stones and examined them. "This is Professor Zilfred's work. He grows these things in his office. See the little gold flecks?" Yugi asked, proffering a gem. "It's his signature."

Atem's eyebrows shot up. "You know him?" he asked.

Yugi grimaced, straightening up. "We've met," he said shortly. "He teaches resource acquisition at Redostrin."

"I was under the impression that you didn't attend," Atem said.

"Oh, I attended, I just.. didn't graduate, is all." A pink hue colored Yugi's cheeks, and Atem wished that he could drop the subject. But this university seemed like it held the key to tracking Bakura down, and Atem doubted he'd be able to gain access without a magician's help.

"Yugi," Atem said, leaning forward. "You realize I'll need to speak with this man." Yugi nodded. "What do you think are the odds that he'll meet with someone like me?"

Yugi fidgeted, no doubt able to see where Atem was going. "You could at least ask him," he said, playing with his fingers.

"I could," Atem consented. "But if I do ask him and he says no, it could be a waste of several days. Meanwhile Bakura is out there doing God knows what with these 'persuasion gems."' Yugi folded his arms, and Atem could tell that he was close to breaking. "I get the feeling he'd be eager to see you again."

"Eager." Yugi let out a sad laugh. "Yeah. He probably would." He hung his head, pausing for a moment. "All right!" he declared at last. "All right, okay, I'll go with you, but you are so going to owe me for this!"

Atem flashed him a sheepish smile. "Right, um… You see… There is one more thing."

Yugi turned to him with an expression of disbelief. "One more thing?" he repeated. "My liver, this time, I'm guessing? Maybe a lung?"

"Well, now that you mention is." Yugi let out a short laugh, and Atem grinned, though his smile was rapidly displaced by a pleading cringe. "A loan? I'm sorry, Yugi, I hate to ask so much; it's just… Téa invited me to dinner, and of course I have to—"

Yugi's eyes brightened like torches set ablaze. "She invited you to dinner?" he asked. His smile took on a slightly devious air. "Four-word phrase. Starts with—"

"Yes, I know, I know, you told me so. I'm broke and misguided and entirely at your mercy; there, are you satisfied?" Atem huffed. "It should only be a few _korona_. I'll work it off."

"Sure," Yugi replied softly. "When is it?"

"Saturday."

"Then I guess we'd better get a move on if we want to get back here in time," Yugi said. "Redostrin's a full day away."


	10. Chapter 10

As Atem and Yugi neared Redostrin, apprehension began to build around Yugi like a storm cloud, growing thicker and darker with every mile they put behind them. "If all goes well we won't be there long," Atem said, in an attempt to encourage him. Yugi humored him with a feeble smile.

Cheering him up might have been easier if he'd known exactly what was eating the young man. Atem considered asking him now, once and for all, what had happened to isolate him from his people so completely. But he decided against it. In only a few more hours, he would see the answer for himself.

Soon the sun began to fall, and as the sky started to darken, a cluster of lights became visible on the horizon. They were multicolored and seemed to shimmer like an aurora. "Is that it?" Atem asked, turning to Yugi, whose face had taken on a sickly hue of pale green. He nodded mutely, then put a hand to his stomach as if struggling not to vomit.

The magician's city was guarded by a high wall of white stone. Above it glowed a translucent web of green light—some sort of protective spell, Atem imagined. Great sea-blue crystals flanked an open wooden gate; Atem's horse gave a low whinny of unease as they passed through it. Within, the roads were narrow and paved with a sandy-colored stone. From the ivy-covered walls of the buildings that surrounded them, paper lanterns dangled, concealing floating wisps of flame shaded red and yellow and white. The mysterious little lights illuminated an army of kiosks and vendor stands on either side of the road, though they were largely deserted, shut up for the night.

"It's late. We'll need to find someplace to stay," Yugi said.

"And something to eat," Atem said, rubbing at his stomach. He'd forgotten how much he hated travelling rations.

Yugi urged his grey pony forward with a light tap of his heels, leading Atem through the congested streets to a building that was propped up on stilts like a pier. Beneath it grew a patch of grass on which a pair of horses were grazing. "I used to come here every weekend," Yugi told him, dismounting lightly and sending his pony off into the field. Though hesitant to leave his horse unguarded and unrestrained, Atem followed suit.

"For dinner?" Atem asked.

"Yeah, and… you know… to get away," Yugi answered. "It was better than my dorm room. I could be by myself—get some real work done."

Yugi led Atem up a short set of stairs and in through the front door. Only a few men sat at the bar and the tables that scattered the room; each had some unusual feature—blue hair, gold eyes, pupils shaped like spirals or stars. Every one of them turned to stare when Atem stepped inside, and he froze, feeling wretchedly out of place. Was it that obvious he didn't belong? Or was his self-consciousness giving him away?

Ignoring them, Yugi headed up to the bar and sat down, and Atem hurried to take a seat at his side. A rosy-cheeked woman in a low-cut black velvet dress stepped up to them from behind the counter, beaming though her smile seemed wearied. "What can I get you two?" she asked. She rested her hands against the bar and leaned forward ever so slightly, baring a bit more of her creamy white décolletage. A trick to get more tips, perhaps, though Yugi seemed too distracted to even notice.

"Noodles and tea—what about you?" Yugi asked, glancing over at Atem.

"The same," Atem said.

The woman straightened up, smile fading somewhat. "Coming right up." As she left, Atem took a moment to glance up at the menu above their heads—and nearly fainted. Thirty _kor _for a bowl of noodles! Six, for a cup of coffee!

"You came here every week?" Atem croaked. What they'd just ordered would have cost him a day's wages at his salary!

"Yeah. I'd already started peddling, um… well… I guess you could call them _enhancement potions_," Yugi said, lowering his voice to a whisper. Blood rose to his face, and Atem couldn't help but smirk a little. "Stop it."

"Oh, come on, Yugi," Atem chided, grinning at him. "You have to admit it's a little amusing—someone like you, selling something like that."

Yugi whipped around to face him. "What's that supposed to mean!?" he demanded.

"Nothing," Atem laughed with a shake of his head. "Nothing!" he insisted, when Yugi continued to glower at him.

The young waitress swept out of the kitchen, two large porcelain bowls floating in the air behind her. They gentled settled onto the bar top as she removed two sets of cutlery from the pockets of her apron. "I'll have your tea in just a minute," she said.

"Smells good," Atem declared. Thin noodles and a poached egg sat in a pool of rich broth, garnished with green onions. He took up his fork and spoon like a man arming himself for battle, pulled his bowl closer, then dug in wildly, spraying broth everywhere in his haste.

Meanwhile, Yugi picked at his plate with little appetite, pushing the noodles around in circles. Atem sat up, cheeks bulging with food, and looked over at him. "You know," he said, swallowing hard and feeling the under-chewed lump of pasta force its way down his throat, "if you're not going to eat that…"

Wordlessly, Yugi pushed his serving over, and Atem dumped its contents into his bowl with gusto. "You're probably wondering why I'm making such a big deal out of all this," Yugi murmured. "Coming back." Unsure what to say, Atem said nothing. Yugi let out a short sigh. "You… might have noticed that I'm pretty good at what I do. I know it sounds like I'm bragging, but—"

"It doesn't," Atem assured him. He could have called himself a master and been selling himself short—as far as Atem was aware, he was one of the best in the world.

The waitress brought out their tea, and Yugi heaped sugar into his cup, stirring listlessly. "When you can do the kinds of things that I can," he said, "people start to… expect things from you. Everybody I knew _wanted_ something, all the time, and I… I just couldn't take it anymore." He hung his head, yellow bangs falling forward to cover his eyes. "I ran away. I left a note for my roommate and I ran away and I haven't been back since."

"How long has it been?" Atem asked.

"Five years."

"And no one came looking for you?" Atem couldn't imagine how someone could let a friend up and vanish like that. If Yugi ever decided to disappear one day, Atem would have scoured the earth until he got him back.

"I don't know. I didn't make myself easy to find," Yugi answered. He took a sip of his tea. "I probably disappointed everyone," he said quietly.

"That isn't your fault. They're the ones who decided that your talent was their property," Atem told him. "I know you might feel some obligation to use what you have to better the world, and that's fine. But you're also perfectly within your rights to say to hell with it all and open up a haberdashery somewhere." Yugi chuckled. "You don't have to do what everybody asks of you, Yugi. I'm not certain that you even should."

Yugi's only response was a thin-lipped smile; it was clear from his expression that he wasn't convinced. "Hey. Look at me," Atem said, nudging him in the arm until he looked up and met Atem's eyes. "Whatever happens at the university tomorrow, I want you to promise me you won't agree to anything you don't want to. All right?"

"All right."

"You mean it?"

"I mean it. No matter what happens, I'll just… get all this over with and come home," Yugi assured him. Now it was Atem's turn to be unconvinced, but Yugi didn't seem eager to discuss the matter further. Returning to his bowl of noodles, Atem polished off the last of his meal, then followed Yugi up to one of the inn rooms to rest.


	11. Chapter 11

The university was like a city in and of itself. The grand building rose like a palace above a perfectly manicured lawn and pools of water clearer than diamonds. Spires stretched up from its towers of white stone blocks and reached for the sky. But for all its size and stateliness, the campus itself seemed strangely inactive, particularly when compared to the bustling streets just a few blocks away. "Spring break," Yugi explained, before Atem could read too much into it.

Yugi angled himself toward the western wing of the college building, slipping between a fat pair of pillars and into a wide cloister. "Professor Zilfred's one of the only teachers who works on the first floor," Yugi said, walking quickly with his chin down like a criminal making his escape. "When it wasn't raining he'd hold classes in his garden. You can see it there." Yugi extended a finger to a small barn and a patch of fertile soil near the university's back wall. The garden was overloaded with fruits and vegetables that seemed close to maturity, though a few of the plants were unrecognizable, and many others, like the apple tree, should have been well out of season.

"You said Professor Zilfred taught resource acquisition?" Atem asked. Yugi nodded. "Was there someone who taught transformation?"

"Sure," Yugi said. "Professor Adar was always trying to get me to do research with him."

"And did you?" Atem asked.

Yugi shook his head. "His areas of interest were a little… mundane, compared to what I was used to working with."

The door to Professor Zilfred's office was open when they approached it; the windows had been thrown up, letting in a cool breeze that tossed the curtains. An elderly man—Zilfred himself, Atem had to assume—sat behind a mahogany desk, pouring over a stack of leather-bound books. Behind him grew a tree-like crystalline structure nearly four feet tall. It was blue with flecks of gold, like many of the gemstones in Atem's burlap evidence bag.

Zilfred glanced up. His pale eyes had been permanently narrowed by decades of squinting, and his skin had a darkened and leathery appearance, as if he'd spent a great deal of time in the sun. His white hair was so thick and tough that it resembled the bristles of a horse brush, and his eyebrows were equally severe, poking out of his forehead like cactus spines. He smiled thinly. "Yugi Muto," he said, rising easily from his seat. He seemed quite strong. "My favorite trouble student."

"Hi, Professor," Yugi managed, voice faint.

"I haven't seen hide or hair of you in years, boy. Poor Adar's been weeping into his coffee every morning since your little vanishing act." Shame-faced, Yugi swallowed, and Atem protective instincts flared up. He took a step forward.

"I'm afraid he's not here to stay," Atem said, in a tone more confrontational than it probably should have been.

"Oh?" Zilfred raised one of his wild eyebrows, eyes flashing. "And who might you be?"

"A _politzer _of Ivrolyn. Investigating one of your students, it seems." Atem poured a few of the persuasion gems out onto his palm and held them out for Zilfred's inspection. "These were found at the scene of a breaking and entering. Do you recognize them?"

"Hm, let's see… Yes, these stones are mine. I hand out a supply to all of my better students," Zilfred said. At this, Yugi flushed, and Atem wondered if he hadn't received any.

"Did you ever have a student by the name of Bakura?" Atem asked.

"Bakura, ah, yes," Zilfred breathed. "Yes, I thought he'd be back to cause trouble eventually."

"Why?" Atem asked.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, please. The Bakura I taught was a lovely boy. Quiet, shy, but a hard worker. Possessed quite a penchant for mind-control magic, if I'm not mistaken, which would be consistent with those gems of yours. They're known as persuasion gems. They're used to influence behavior."

"Yes, I know," Atem said, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice.

Zilfred's eyebrows shot up a second time. "Well, look at you. Keep this up and you might qualify to scrub the campus toilets." Atem scowled at him. "Bakura's senior project was rather ambitious and backfired terribly. The accident split his personality right down the middle. One minute you'd find yourself talking to the sweetest boy in the world. The next you were nose to nose with an axe-murderer. He was sent to get professional help."

"And?" Atem prompted.

"God knows. If I kept tabs on all of my students I'd need four clones just to keep up," Zilfred said. "But if you're so eager to find him, you might have Yugi use one of those gems to cry him out."

Atem turned to Yugi for some kind of confirmation, but the young magician seemed to be trying very hard to avoid eye contact. "Now, gentlemen," Zilfred said. "I hope that will be all."

_Same here_, Atem thought thanking the professor with a bow of his head before turned on his heel and left. 'Now there's a pleasant fellow," he said once they were well out of earshot. Yugi cringed apologetically.

"Yeah," Yugi admitted. "He's usually a little on the sour side, which isn't what I would expect. You figure it'd be hard to stay cranky when you spend half the day out in the garden."

Atem turned to face him and held up the bag of gems. "Zilfred said something about… what was the word?"

"Scrying," Yugi answered. "It means to magically figure out someone's location. Blood or hair works best, but an object a person's held will do in a pinch—uh, in theory, anyway," he said, scratching at the back of his head. "When Zilfred said I could do it if I remembered how, I think he was giving me a little too much credit. It wasn't exactly a class that I excelled in."

Atem wasn't sure what to say to that. The mild look of embarrassment on Yugi's face wasn't something he'd ever had to deal with before. He tried to think of what Yugi had said to him when he'd been confronted with his failings, the way he'd made light of it all but somehow never seemed condescending. Atem doubted that he could pull off such a thing, so instead, he defaulted to honesty. "Yugi, you realize none of that matters to anyone who really cares about you," Atem said. "You're good at what you do and that's all that counts."

"Yeah, of course, I know, it's just…" Yugi slipped his hands into his pockets. "Sometimes you just wish, you know?"

Atem nodded. "I know," he said. He cleared his throat. "Anyway, there must be someone around here who'll be willing to do it for us, if for a price." He grimaced, thinking of the fifteen measly _kor _that now comprised the entirety of his worldly wealth. "If they do request some payment… you, um… wouldn't mind…"

Yugi smiled softly down at the ground. "I'll add it to your tab," he said, his tone teasing. His smile turned devious as he folded his hands behind his back and slowed his pace to a leisurely stroll. "Speaking of your tab," he began in a light, conversational tone, "you know I'd just give you the money if you if I thought you wanted me to."

"Yes," Atem admitted. "And you know I'd never let you do something like that." He might have been broke, but he wasn't about to take advantage of Yugi's friendship.

"Right. Which is why you offered to work off what you owed me," Yugi continued. Atem hadn't the slightest clue where Yugi was going with this, but the uncertainty only redoubled the apprehension in his gut. "Well, the total's kind of getting up there—and you _do _still owe me for what happened with the ring—at my standard rate, it could take a while to pay it all back."

"I'm certain there's a point in here somewhere," Atem said.

"The point is," Yugi said, "I'll cut the time down to a day or two if you promise to help me with one test in particular."

"Not a chance," Atem answered immediately.

Yugi let out an indignant cry. "You haven't even know what is it yet!"

"I don't have to. The minute and a half you took to tell me about this was all the warning I needed," Atem said.

"I promise, it will be painless!" Yugi assured him.

"Oh?" Atem said, raising an eyebrow. "Then where, pray tell, is the catch?"

'No catch," Yugi said, voice rising to a pitch even higher than usual, and Atem snorted. "It's just it kind of requires… two people." Atem's eyebrows now shot up past his bangs. "I was thinking you could maybe ask Téa to help."

Téa. The wheels in Atem's head began to turn. "Wait a minute," he said, pointing a finger at Yugi's chest. "I know what this is. This is that spell you're working on for couples, isn't it—that spell where they have to kiss!"

"Oh, come on!" Yugi said. "It's just a gender switch spell, and you've been a girl dozens of times already; what's the big deal?"

"What's the big deal?" Atem repeated. He really needed to ask that question? "Yugi, even if I did agree to go along with this, what on earth makes you think Téa would consent? Based on the size of that wallet you handed her, I doubt she'll be strapped for cash any time soon."

Yugi folded his arms thoughtfully and paused a moment. "I don't know," he admitted. "But she sort of strikes me as the type." Atem tried hard not to think about that.

"How would we change back?" Atem asked. "Will we have to kiss again? Are you asking me to kiss a male version of my girlfriend?"

Yugi suddenly beamed at him, his expression triumphant, and Atem choked a little when he realized his slip of the tongue. "You what?" Yugi asked innocently.

Atem turned aside. "My girl… friend. As in young female friend. I… I forgot the term had romantic connotations in this language," Atem said. It was a boldfaced lie and he could feel the blood rising to his cheeks, betraying his deception.

Yugi chuckled but didn't call him out on his fib. "Don't worry," he said. "The transformation should be temporary."

"Should be!"

"If it isn't I'll clear the spell myself," Yugi said. He tilted his head. "Will you at least ask her?"

Atem threw up his hands. "Fine. I will ask her. But I am making it clear that this is all your idea, understood?"


	12. Chapter 12

Yugi ended up shelling out fifty _kor _to the gangly acne-ridden student who'd performed their scrying. The boy had dangled one of the persuasion stones over a map, and the gem had sought out the location of its owner like iron sought out a magnet, landing at last on the city of Damaste. Though "city" was perhaps too generous a term—Atem had been there once on a previous case, and the ramshackle collection of huts had barely qualified as a shantytown.

Unfortunately, at four days' ride away, it was also somewhat remote. There was no way Atem could get there and back without missing his dinner with Téa. "Tell me it wouldn't be entirely unprofessional to postpone this manhunt until after my date," Atem asked Yugi, as they neared Yugi's home.

"Well," Yugi began thoughtfully, "this isn't something you'll be able to do alone. You'll have to find somebody at the station who can help you, and that's probably not going to be easy." Atem snorted. Easy? Forcing a cat into a cold bath would have been simpler. "I'd help myself, but…"

"I know." Yugi's talents were hardly geared toward offense, and Atem didn't blame him for wanting to bow out. His peers in Redostrin, on the other hand, had no excuse. Heaven forbid they should take responsibility for their own citizens, but Atem had at least hoped they'd be willing to _aid _the investigation.

"Besides, your horse needs rest," Yugi continued. "All in all I think it could take a couple of days, don't you?" Yugi winked at him.

Atem dismounted, rubbing his sore behind. "You're a good friend, Yugi," he said.

Yugi hopped off his pony and walked over to him. "I'm a great friend," he said, withdrawing his coin purse from his saddlebag and pushing it into Atem's hand. Despite the small fortune Yugi had expended on their trip, it was heavy and seemed nearly full. "Don't forget to ask her," he added, pointing a finger at Atem's face.

"I won't, I won't," Atem sighed. He offered Yugi a small smile. "Thank you."

Yugi nodded cheerfully. "If you need anything else, let me know, okay?" With that, he turned and began to lead his pony to its stable.

Atem glanced down at the money bag. It was more than he'd had in his possession in several months. To think it could all be gone by tomorrow night. "Yugi, wait," Atem said, stopping Yugi before he could get too far. Yugi turned and looked up at him, and Atem cringed, embarrassment turning his face red. "What sort of things does one usually bring, in, um… this sort of situation?"

"You're asking me?" Yugi laughed. As far as he'd let on, Yugi had never even had a crush, much less a girlfriend. "You're the one who spent two weeks in the baths with her. She must have told you something about what she likes."

Atem crossed his arms, thinking hard about it. "Spiced wine," he said after a moment.

"There you go."

"And peonies. But—doesn't it seem a bit silly?" Atem asked, frowning. "The flowers will be dead in a day and a half, and knowing Téa, the wine won't last the night." That girl had nothing if not an appetite.

Yugi put a hand to his chin. "You could get her a plant, I guess," he offered.

Atem raised his eyebrows. "A plant," he said, giving Yugi a dull-eyed stare.

"Like a rosebush," Yugi said. "Girls like roses."

"Your idea is to have me show up on her doorstep with a rosebush."

"Oh, I don't know!" Yugi huffed, wrinkling his nose. "Easy for you to stand back and criticize all my ideas! Why don't _you _try thinking of something?"

"What about a gemstone?" Atem suggested. Yugi shook his head.

"Way too early for that," he said.

"It's not as if I'm saying it has to be a diamond; I'm not proposing," Atem said, bristling. "It could be something simple, like turquoise."

"Too early."

Atem sighed and put his hands on his hips. "You think so?" he asked. Oh, maybe he was right; Atem didn't know. Nothing was clear-cut about this mad country's traditions. "You know in Galeid things are much more straightforward?" he said. "If a man likes a woman he brings her salt crystals and dried mango. There's none of this ridiculous guesswork involved."

"So," Yugi said, leaning forward. "Why don't you just bring her that?"

Atem frowned and glanced away. "I doubt anyone here is interested in Galeidic convention, Yugi," he said softly. A faint twinge of homesickness made his stomach ache. It was just one of the many customs he'd probably never get a chance to take part in.

"But didn't you say she liked it when you talked about home?" Yugi countered.

Atem hesitated, unable to deny the accusation. "All right," he conceded. "Maybe she wouldn't mind it, but…" He turned away abruptly, feeling strangely cornered. "But the gifts symbolize something quite serious in Galeid. Casual dating isn't uncommon there."

"Is that what this is to you?" Yugi asked him quietly. "A casual date?" His expression was skeptical.

Was it casual? Atem couldn't begin to answer that question. He still felt guilty about how they'd met and found it difficult to believe Téa could ever forgive him. A part of him wondered if she was even capable of taking a foreigner like him seriously. And she was so different from the girls he'd known back home. Where they were dark and full of soft curves, she was almost boyishly muscled, and her pallor gave her what he considered a somewhat sickly appearance. But at the same time, he found he couldn't draw his mind away from her. She might have been white as a sheet, but… her eyes. That exotic, magical shade of blue they had, like the sea on a sunny day. And the way she'd smiled when she'd heard his native language, and the way she'd eaten enough for ten men, and the way she laughed…

No, Atem wasn't sure how he felt about her, and he didn't know what he ultimately wanted. All he knew was that she was the only girl in the world who made him feel like something other than an outsider. He hated the idea of letting that go.

He cleared his throat, eager to remove himself from that train of thought. The more he lingered on the subject, the more confused he became, and the more his heart ached for some shred of clarity. "It doesn't matter," he said. "It's impossible to find mangoes in this country anyway. I suppose it's spiced wine and peonies after all."

Yugi's face betrayed a mote of disappointment, but he nodded, and Atem wondered if he really understood. "Okay," he said. "Let me know how it goes, okay?"

"I will," Atem said. He took his horse by the reins and wandered back to his house, wishing he'd kept his mouth shut and avoided the whole conversation.


	13. Chapter 13

Spiced wine in one hand and peonies in the other, Atem made his way to Téa's house just as the sun was setting. He hadn't been sure what would look worse—a woman bearing romantic gifts, or a man coming to call on her in the night—but he'd worn the ring anyway. Strangely, it seemed to take some of the pressure off, reminding him of the days when they'd just been friends and life had been simple.

He smelled the deer stew when he was still a few yards off, clutching his empty belly as it gave a loud rumble. He hoped the meal was prepared already. Then they could sit right down and get to it without much conversation. If he was lucky he might even be home within the hour. There was no way he could make a fool of himself in an hour. Unless he tripped over his skirt. Or dropped the wine. Or slopped food all over himself. Or—

Atem started, astonished to find he was already at her doorstep. Lord, what a warm night it was! He was sweating. Using his sleeve to mop up his moist brow and neck, bit his lip and raised his fist to rap his knuckles against her door. A few agonizing seconds passed before Téa opened up; he swayed a little—her loveliness and the savory scent of the food were twin blows that struck him hard. She'd adorned her hair with daisies and—was that makeup on her face? The dress she wore seemed new, too; it was a tight-fitting green satin number with embroidery on the sleeves and skirt.

His face flushed as he tugged at his plain brown bodice. He was terribly underdressed. Combine that with the sweat that was now openly beading on his forehead, and he probably looked like a kitchen scullion who'd just gotten off from work. "Hi, come on in," she said. Her smile revealed a touch of anxiety, and Atem matched it with a faint grin of relief. At least he wasn't the only one who was nervous.

"Thank you," he said, stepping past her. It was even hotter inside than it had been on the stoop. He could feel the perspiration start to run down the backs of his legs, making them itch.

Téa had done a bit of remodeling since his last visit, though nothing extreme. The roof no longer sagged and many of the rotten planks and timbers in her walls had been replaced. "Yeah, I had to resist the urge to tear the whole place down and start from scratch," Téa said, noticing his stares. "What Yugi gave me was a ton, but… you know money."

"Here today and gone tomorrow," Atem murmured. Yes, he knew it all too well. "Oh, um… these are for you," he said, becoming aware of the offerings he still held. He passed them over to her, heart racing. Would she hate them?

She beamed. Her smile lit up her face like the sun lit up the sky, giving Atem a rare rush of pleasure. "Look at these." She took the small pink bouquet and pressed the flowers to her nose, breathing deep. "They're beautiful. Thank you." There was a bounce in her step when she turned aside to place the peonies in water. "Hopefully the wine will make it until dinner," she said. "I wasn't sure when you'd be coming, so the stew could be a little while."

"That's fine," Atem said, though his stomach tightened in protest. Téa poured two cups full of the wine and handed one to him. "Thanks," he said, taking a long, swift draft to ease his nerves. He held up his hand and glanced down at the ring. "I suppose I won't be needing this anymore." With a grunt of effort, he pried the ornament free, his body smoothly shifting back to his male form.

"Wow," Téa breathed, lifting her eyebrows. Atem nodded. "Does it…" She smiled shyly, cheeks turning pink. "Does it feel weird? Your whole body changing like that, it looks…"

Atem remembered what Yugi had said about her, how she struck him as the type to be interested in this stuff. Now was as good a time as any to see if he'd been right—or, as Atem hoped, to prove he'd been wrong. "Would you like to try it on?" he asked, holding it out to her.

"What? No," she said, covering her mouth with her hand. But her eyes remained fixed on the ring, and deep down, Atem knew Yugi's hunch had been on the money. As usual. He got the strong sense another told-you-so would be coming his way shortly. "Do you think it would even work? I'm already a girl."

"I don't know. But I can't imagine there's much harm in trying," Atem said.

Téa bit her lip. "You promise not to make fun of me?"

"Of course not," Atem laughed. She plucked the ring from his hand, letting out an embarrassed giggle as she held it at the tip of her finger.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she said. "All right—here goes!" She slipped the ring on, and in a flash, a boy replaced the boyish young woman. Her new body was diminutive and small-boned, lean as a panther from head to toe. The satin dress had transfigured itself into trousers and a green cotton tunic; the makeup had vanished, but oddly, the daisies had lingered in her short brown hair.

She let out a squeak and buried her face in her hands, turning red all over. "My word," Atem said, leaning forward to peer at her. Now that he stopped to think about it, this was the first time he'd ever seem someone he knew in another form. He would have never imagined it could be so unsettling. "It's hard to believe it's still you in there," Atem said. "It's as if my eyes and my brain are at war with each other."

"Trust me. I know the feeling," she said, hesitantly running her hands over her torso. As he maneuvered her fingers across her taut stomach, she stopped abruptly and flushed.

"It doesn't quite feel like yours, does it?" Atem asked.

"Not sure if I'd want it to," she murmured. She glanced up, wearing a coquettish smile that looked bizarre on her male face. "You really went through all this just to take a bath?"

"Yes. But as it turns out, my obsession was justified." Atem explained to her about the persuasion gems and told her everything he'd learned about Bakura. "Yep, definitely, never, ever, _ever_ going to the baths again," Téa declared. "The one source of happiness in my life that didn't involve food, ruined forever."

"What?" Atem asked, grinning. "Do I not count?" He froze as soon as the words left his mouth, eyes wide with horror. "I'm sorry," he said quickly. "What a terribly presumptuous thing to say. I don't know what came over me."

"It's all right." She crossed her arms and glanced aside with a pensive expression. "It's true," she murmured. Atem's heart skipped a beat. Had she meant to say that? Of course she hadn't. Had she? "Recently… since I started working at Nocturne… I haven't really had many people I could be close to. Male or female," she said. "It's nice. Having this again."

Was that all he was to her? A remedy for her loneliness? He felt a stab of disappointment though he knew he had no right. "I think I know the feeling," he said to her as she pulled the ring off and handed it back to him. "It was a long time after I came here before I began to make friends. Yugi was the first, believe it or not. We were in school—the other children were teasing me because of my accent." He smiled at the memories that began to bubble up into his mind. "Yugi was lurking a ways off, watching us. He was like that, back then—always standing at a distance and staring at everything. It unnerved most people, including me. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I was actually a bit scared of him."

"No one can blame you for that. Have you ever noticed?" she asked. "Sometimes he'll give you this kind of look…?"

"Like he's debating what to do with you, yes. I still panic every time I see it," Atem replied, grimly recalling the last time Yugi had turned that horrid gaze upon him. It had taken hours for all that damn dog fur to go away. "He saw what we were doing and came up to us. We all froze—he'd never approached anyone before. And he turns to me, and very casually, he asks me, 'Is there anything in particular you'd like me to do to them?'"

Téa gaped at him. "Needless to say I was about ready to faint at this point," Atem continued with a chuckle. "He looked at me for a while, waiting for me to answer, but I am of course paralyzed and I couldn't get out a word. So he shrugged, snapped his fingers, and suddenly I was surrounded by a small herd of goats. I didn't realize it then," he said, "but what I'd just witnessed was the equivalent of a virtuoso's concert. There are eighty-year-old masters who can't transform so many people so quickly and cleanly. I doubt Yugi was any older than sixteen, at the time."

"He changed them back, I'm hoping," Téa said. She smiled. "Well. Kind of hoping."

"He did eventually, when our headmaster came to plead with him on their behalf," Atem said. "After that, no one dared give me a second look. I suppose Yugi felt a bit bad about that. Yes, he'd scared off the bullies, but he'd scared everyone else away from me, too. A little while later, he came up and asked if it would be all right if we ate lunch together. I was still wary of him and accepted more due to fear than anything else… but it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I wouldn't have been able to believe it then, the first time I caught him scrutinizing me, but by the time we graduated, we were inseparable."

"That's sweet." Téa leaned back against her kitchen table, playing with the soft petals of the peonies. "How is it that every time we're together we end up talking about him?" she asked.

"Maybe because he's more interesting than the both of us put together," Atem said. Téa let out a soft laugh. "Maybe because it makes things a little less… intense," he added hesitantly, unsure if she felt the same way. But she nodded, wringing her hands. "I don't know why it feels this way. I can be more honest with you now than ever, but I'm more scared than ever of saying something wrong. And you—" He stopped short. _You used to share everything with me. _But Téa's trust had never belonged to him. It had belonged to Anna, and it had died with her.

Téa swallowed. She seemed uncomfortable, and he wished he'd never brought it up. "I'm doing everything wrong tonight, aren't right?" he asked quietly.

"No. I'm glad one of us had the courage to bring it up," Téa said. "It is silly. If how we acted in the bathhouse was anything close to who we really are, then we already know we get along. So let's make a pact." She held out her hand to him. "I'll be straight with you. And you'll be straight with me. No worrying, no games."

"I'm not sure I can promise no worrying, but…" He took her hand and shook it firmly, meeting her eyes. "As for the rest, it's a deal."

"Good!" Immediately she bent down and began to work off her high heels. "You'd think after dancing _en pointe _all these years there wouldn't be any nerves left down there. Nope! It's just a different subgenre of pain," she muttered. She cast the shoes into the corner, where they landed in a heap. Between their buckled straps and their sharp stilettos, they bore an unnerving resemblance to torture devices. "There!" Now barefoot except for a thin pair of stockings, she headed to the stove to check on the stew.

Atem twisted the ring in his fingers a moment before stuffing it back into his pocket. "not to bring up Yugi again," he said, "but there was a request he wanted me to pass on to you."

"Now there's a sentence that sends chills down your spine," Téa replied, donning an uneasy frown. "What is it? Or dare I ask?"

"It's a spell he's interested in testing," Atem said. Immediately he saw the blood drain from her face, leaving her with the complexion of a corpse. "It's a, uh… a gender-switch spell, I suppose you could say."

"Switch?"

"Well, yes," Atem said, cringing. "It's the reason you're being roped into all this. Unfortunately, the magic seems to require too people. Otherwise I would do it myself." Despite his promise to be honest with her, he decided to omit the kissing bit for the moment. If he was lucky, it might be some time before he had the chance to fulfill Yugi's latest task, and by then, she might be more open to such an intimate gesture. "He's sworn up and down that it will be painless and quite temporary."

"I don't know…" She crinkled her nose. She emptied her wine glass and poured herself a second serving. "Do you do this kind of thing a lot for him? As a favor?"

"No, not often. Not as often as I probably should, anyway," he sighed, leaning against the table He'd long been aware that his friendship with Yugi was terribly lopsided. Yugi had been a friend to him, a tutor, a moneylender, a guardian. Whatever Atem asked of him, he did, and Atem asked a great deal. So why had he waited until Yugi had demanded his help to provide the only thing that Yugi needed—a lab rat? Had he been afraid… or just selfish?

"Look, I'll… I'll think about it. I will. But right now…" Téa folded her arms and gritted her teeth. "Leaning towards no? I'm sorry, it's just—"

"No. No, it's quite all right, I understand." Though her refusal had condemned him to another few months in Yugi's service, he couldn't say he was disappointed. Seeing his girlfriend in a man's body wasn't an experience he was eager to repeat.


	14. Chapter 14

Atem's date had concluded amiably with a bowl of somewhat overcooked deer stew and a modest serving of strawberries. Once they'd made their pledge of honesty, conversation had been easy, even pleasant. He had talked about his work; she had told him about her family. The banal exchange had filled Atem with an unexpected sense of hopefulness—perhaps some normality could come of their relationship after all.

But the next morning he was forced to push those happy feelings aside. As much as he would have liked to bask forever in the memory of the previous night, that snake Bakura was still on the loose. Yugi had not been wrong to say he needed help in his endeavor. In truth, he would have felt safest with a small army at his side, but he could think of few people willing to combat an errant magician.

One such fool was a senior politzer who went by the name of Tristan. Atem had worked with him a few times before, and the tall, fit fellow was nothing if not courageous, perhaps even to the point of idiocy. Atem had seen him run into burning buildings, rush headlong into violent hordes, duel men twice his size, and all without a second thought.

Atem intercepted him outside the _politz _office shortly after dawn. He was breathing hard and looked a mess; sweat soaked his thick brown had and left wide, dark stains on his clothing. "Running? At this ungodly hour?" Atem asked him wearily, aching for a cup of coffee. Except in dire emergencies, Atem was useless until noon.

"We can't all be night owls, dude," Tristan replied breathlessly. "Believe it or not, the world doesn't actually grind to a halt between the hours of 2 A.M. and 10 A.M." He threw the _politz _office door open and stepped inside. The building's interior was minimalistic and clean, all cedar and hard wood furniture. The night watch secretary, a rough-looking woman with musculature to rival Atem's own, greeted them with a few listless blinks.

Tristan stepped past her into an alcove lined with lockers. "Haven't seen you around here for a while," Tristan said, withdrawing a thin towel from his belongings and using it to wipe down his neck and forehead. "Got a case?" he asked. Then he looked at Atem and grinned. "Or got a girl?"

Atem twitched, feeling his face warm, and Tristan let out a coarse laugh. "Don't look so shocked. What, you think I haven't seen that star-struck look before?" Star-struck! Now Atem really turned red. "I've even found it in the mirror a time or two. Never thought I'd see you wearing it, though." Atem glowered at him, and Tristan quickly threw up his hands. "Not because of that! I mean, you know, not because of…" He gestured at Atem's person, presumably indicating his skin tone. "It's just, you know, 'level-headed Atem'… never lets anything get to him…?"

Atem sighed, momentarily placated. Seeing the change in his mood, Tristan chuckled and punched him lightly in the arm. "So?" Tristan asked. His grin was massive and mischievous. "Is she hot?"

"Is she hot?" Atem repeated in disbelief. "That's your first question, 'Is she hot?'"

"Ooh." Tristan winced. "She isn't, is she? Well, don't worry about it too much, man; they all get kind of scraggly eventually."

"Tristan!" Atem exclaimed. Tristan shrugged, unabashed. "I'll have you know she has very lovely eyes, and—and her teeth are close to perfect!"

"Eyes, huh? How's the… you know…" Tristan cupped his hands over his chest and waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Understanding hit Atem like a dart. "They're just fine!" he snapped. "And if you had any idea how hard those things are to carry around, you'd like the small ones, too!" he said, jabbing a finger in Tristan's face.

"All right! All right! Easy," Tristan said. His smile lost its devious air, and he squeezed Atem's shoulder. "Hey. I'm really happy for you; I know you've been waiting for this a long time."

Atem acknowledged his congratulations with an unenthused nod. Getting his first girlfriend at the age of twenty-one was more of an embarrassment than a cause for celebration. "Unfortunately, I didn't come just to spread the good news," Atem told him. "I need your help."

Tristan frowned. "What's up?" Atem explained about Bakura, and with every word that left Atem's mouth, Tristan's eyebrows rose a little higher. "Let me get this straight," he said. "You want us to go after a magician who can mess with people's heads? Just the two of us?"

"If you can think of any other willing volunteers, now's the time to speak up," Atem said flatly, crossing his arms. Stymied, Tristan said nothing. "It won't be easy, but if we're coordinated and quick with the restraints, we can manage it. After all…" He cleared his throat, readying for the most shameless abuse of flattery in his life. "You _are_ the department expert when it comes to this sort of thing. Some might even say the best."

Tristan chuckled sheepishly, scratching at the back of his head. "Well, I _have _had my fair share of experience with sorcerers," he admitted. "You remember that band of witches in Morloch?"

"Of course I remember!" Atem cried. "It was inspirational! And your defeat of the necromancer Sirin in your first year—who could forget something like that?" Atem was now exactly one step up from flirting. He couldn't believe Tristan was falling for this nonsense, but there he stood, sucking up every word and swelling like a bullfrog.

Tristan turned and looped an arm around Atem's shoulders. Atem fought the urge to pull away—his armpit was damp with sweat, and he stank. "I know that to a junior _politzer_ a mission like this might seem intimidating, but don't you worry about a thing, okay? Your man Tristan's got your back!

"You mean it?" Atem asked, in a tone of hopeful naiveté. Tristan nodded decisively, and the moment his consent had been guaranteed, Atem bared his teeth in a wicked grin. "Good! Then I'll meet you outside my house at noon." Clapping his bewildered friend on the back, he dashed back to his place to pack up for his journey.

As agreed, he and Tristan met up a few hours later, Tristan on his large black beast of a war steed, Atem on his slender tawny Galeidic horse built for speed. As they urged their mounts into an easy trot, Atem looked back at the city, heart yearning. To think it would be over a week before he saw Téa again.

"Damn, this girl must be something," Tristan commented, letting out a low whistle. "I haven't seen such a wistful look on your face since Dan's Bakery announced it was going to stop carrying baklava."

"For the record," Atem replied, "she has a name. It's Téa."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tristan go white. "Téa?" he asked weakly. "As in… Téa Gardner?"

"Yes, I believe so. Why, do you know… her…" Atem froze. A cold feeling ran down his back, as if someone had thrown ice water on him. "You have met her," he stated. "At Nocturne."

Tristan quickly threw up his hands. "Look, as long as you know about it, it doesn't bother me. I mean, if you're cool that other men are looking at her and stuff, then who cares if she's—"

"A stripper?" Atem finished, voice rising as his anger grew. "Is that all you see when you look at her? Is that all you think she is?"

"Of course not, man; that's not what I meant. You know that's not what I meant," Tristan said sternly. Atem huffed, but in truth, his outburst had startled him. "Level-headed Atem" rarely got so defensive about anything.

"What is someone like you doing in a place like that, anyway?" Atem asked. "I was under the impression you were taken."

"Taken? Uh…" Tristan's lips curled up into a twitchy attempt at a grin. The result more resembled a grimace. "Taken is such a _strong _word, isn't it?"

"So you and Serenity aren't dating?" Atem asked, glad that he wasn't the one on the spot for once. He glanced at Tristan out of the corner of his eye, and again Tristan cringed. "Or is 'dating' too strong a word, as well?"

"Hey, are we talking, or are we riding?" Tristan asked him. "Let's get some ground behind us." With that he kicked his horse into a full gallop, and after allowing himself a small chuckle, Atem pursued him.

Several quiet and arduous days of travel brought them at last to the outskirts of Bakura's derelict hideout. Atem slipped off his mount's back, boots sinking into the mud with a squelch, and secured its reins to a drooping branch of the nearest pine tree. "There's no telling which of the two personalities we'll encounter when we confront him," Atem said, fixing his sword belt around his waist. Tristan followed suit with a twin pair of small daggers and a broadsword which he strapped to his back. "I don't think we should hurt him until we're sure which one we're dealing with."

"Atem, surprise is the only advantage we have," Tristan said. "I say we swoop in, take him out, bind his magic, and sort out who's who later."

"I understand your point, I do, but try to put yourself in the boy's position. To be wheeled around like a puppet for months, and at the end of it all get arrested?" Atem countered. "He hasn't done anything wrong."

"What he did wrong was mess around with magic way beyond his skill level. He was arrogant, Atem, and people are getting hurt because of it. Do you want to be his next victim? Do you think that's going to make him feel any better?" Tristan asked. Atem broke eye contact, unable to conjure up a retort. Tristan took a step toward him. "Besides. If I were in the bad guy's shoes, I'd probably try to imitate the good Bakura to trick us. Sorry, Atem. But I'm the senior _politzer _here and it's my call."

He was right, of course; Atem knew it. Still, it was an effort to keep the frustration off his face as he look up at Tristan and nodded. "Yes, sir," he said quietly.

"I'll try not to hurt him too bad," Tristan assured him, taking on a look of sympathy. "Ready?"

From his saddlebag, Atem withdrew the chains that would bind their target. The restraints were crafted from iron and immensely heavy, weighted down by an enchantment designed to suppress a magician's powers. Atem quickly pulled his sleeves down over his fingers to form a barrier between his skin and the rough metal links. They were colder than ice, actively leeching the heat from his flesh. He couldn't imagine the discomfort of having them clamped around his wrists.

Atem held the chains tightly to keep them from jangling as he and Tristan stalked forward into the shantytown. Huts no bigger than a snuffbox had been thrown together from unhewn stone and mud, with roofs of thatched grass that sagged. Trash and animal excrement lined the dirt streets, and rainwater had gathered in foul-smelling pools that even the dogs avoided. A few blocks in, they came upon a young boy poking around in a shallow ditch. As they approached, he stood up sharply in alarm.

"Easy! Easy," Tristan said gently, as if trying to soothe a startled horse. The slender child's eye were massive as he looked up at them, and Tristan crouched down before him so that they were on the same level. "We're looking for somebody." Tristan removed his _politz _badge, and the boy gasped audibly as it sparkled in the sun. "A grown-up. White hair, brown eyes, really pale?"

The boy fidgeted, eyes locked on the silver ornament. "If I tell you," he said, "can I have that?" For someone so young, his voice held a surprising edge of savvy. Tristan scowled at him and quickly stuffed the badge back into his breast pocket.

"Not a chance," he said. The child made a sour face and made to stomp away, but Tristan caught him by the shoulder before he could bolt. "Hey, hold on. Counter-offer." He reached into his shirt, removing a whistle that dangled from a tightly woven cord. The small brass instrument had been polished to perfection; it was radiant. "What do you say to this?"

For a moment, the boy was mesmerized beyond words, but he shook himself free of the shock and eagerly snatched up the offering. "Three blocks east, the weird house with the glass hanging from the eaves!"

Still, Tristan held him fast. "If he's not there, who am I coming after?" he asked.

"Me."

"Good kid." He sent the boy off with a pat on the back.

Atem watched him as he tore down the street, blowing into the whistle like a man possessed. "And who do you think his parents are coming after when they discover who's behind his newfound interest in music?" he asked. The whistle's shriek was still audible though the boy had been long out of sight.

"Ah, let the kid have a little joy in his life, huh?" Tristan said, straightening up. "What else has he got to play with in this dump, sticks and stones?"

"Sticks and stones were good enough for me," Atem retorted. The closest thing to a toy he'd ever gotten from his parents was a butter churn, and he'd been happy to have it.

"And look out you turned out," Tristan said. Atem winced. And Tristan didn't even know the half of it.

They came upon Bakura's shack a short distance downhill. Colored glass had been suspended over the doorway—some sort of protective spell? But Tristan didn't give Atem long to ponder on the matter. Slipping his broadsword from its sheath, he ghosted up to the house and cut the shards from the eaves with a swift slash; the glass fell soundlessly into the mud. _"See this trick all the time," _he mouthed, before flattening himself against the wall to the side of the entryway.

Atem crouched down opposite him, freezing there as Tristan slowly counted down from three with his fingers. The moment he reached zero he sprang forward and assaulted the door with a swift kick; the flimsy piece of wood exploded upon the impact. Atem and Tristan slipped inside and split apart, shouting at the top of their lungs. "_Politz! Hands up! Get your hands up!" _The sudden noise would disorient the target.

Finding the sparse living room empty, Atem sidled around to an arch that he guessed led off to a bedroom. He was seconds from turning the corner when his boot slipped; he grabbed the wall to steady himself. Heart pounding, he looked down—and found his boots immersed in blood.

"Tristan!" he shouted to his partner as he sprinted into the bedroom. A young man, barely out of his teens, sat propped up against a naked bed frame, shaking hand pressed against his red-stained stomach. His snow-white hair made his skin seem a ghastly shade of grey, and his dark eyes fluttered. _Bakura!_

"Oh. _Politz_," he murmured. His voice was barely loud enough to hear, and Atem dropped to his knees beside the boy in dismay. A short switchblade had been dropped near his arm; it was bloodied. "It's quite all right. I've"—he coughed—"I've done it already."

Tristan came upon the scene and swore, yanking a clean cloth from his breast pocket. He pressed it hard against the wound, and Bakura let out moan through clenched teeth, squirming. "Atem, you see any clean water?"

"Not a drop since we came here.. I'll get my water skin," Atem said, dashing off to retrieve the item from his saddlebag. When he returned, Tristan had rent a hole in Bakura's shirt, exposing a small stab wound.

"He's lucky. Kid missed just about every organ he had," Tristan said, using the water to wash away the blood and specks of dirt. "Hurry and get the shackles on; let's see if we can get him to a doctor."

"No! Please," Bakura latched on to Tristan's arm, leaving a scarlet handprint on his sleeve. "Please, let it be over. I just want it to be over!"

"Atem," Tristan insisted.

Bakura turned his gaze to Atem, wide eyes pleading and full of pain. "Stop, please; there's no cure. Stop. I said _stop!_" Atem's hands froze in place; they trembled as he tried, and failed, to force them to return to their task. "_Please._"Bakura's voice was like an echo in his mind. Magic? "_Just go home._"

Atem stood and turned toward the door, feet carrying him against his will. "Atem!" Tristan shouted, sounding frightened.

"_You, too,_" Bakura whispered.

Atem shook like a leaf as he fought against the enchantment. He understood; he did. If he had been in Bakura's position, powerless except for this single act, he probably would have done the same thing. But… Atem mustered the willpower to turn and look back at him. Heaven, he was just a child. Nearly as small as Yugi and with a face almost as innocent. "Don't do this," Atem managed, terse with strain. "We can find someone to fix this!"

"No one can!" Bakura cried. Tears leaked from the corners of his eyes. "Please go. Go, before… before…" He made a sudden choking sound, body twitching as if with seizure. _No! _Atem knew what was coming, and dread fell over him like a shadow.

Bakura let out a soft laugh, tilting his head forward until his hair covered his eyes. "You should have listened to my counterpart when you had the chance," he said. He pushed himself onto his feet. A soft grunt was his only concession of discomfort.

Tristan saw the change immediately and dove for the restrains. "Ah! _Don't you move,_"Bakura hissed, his angelic face taking on a grotesque leer. "_And the same goes for your brown friend._" Standing over Tristan's motionless form, he set his foot on Tristan's back and pushed him over into the blood pool. "It seems fate had brought me a few new toys to play with." He turned and appraised Atem through narrowed eyes, approaching until they were close enough to smell each other's skin. "Have we met?" Bakura asked suddenly.

Atem flinched as Bakura laid a blood-stained hand on his chin, turning his face from side to side. "Have you any relation to a man by the name of Yugi Muto? _Tell me_."

The words tumbled unbidden from Atem's mouth, like vomit. "He's my friend," he gasped.

Bakura chuckled. "I hope you don't think the feeling is mutual. Yugi Muto has no friends," he spat. "That selfish, obsessive little brat doesn't have anything, except his work. Yes, I know him," he said, in response to the look of shock on Atem's face. "I had just entered university when he left. You should have _heard _the uproar. Bulletin boards, newspaper articles, weeks scrying and searching, all for a boy who failed every class he'd ever taken! All for that boy, when not a soul could be bothered to remember my name, when I gave those bastards everything they ever asked of me! Yes, I know Yugi Muto!" he snarled, spinning away in a rage.

He paused suddenly, smiling. "You know? I've just had the loveliest idea. And it's all thanks to you. Thank you," he said, cupping his hands around Atem's face and stroking his cheek with his thumb. "If I kill their precious prodigy, then they'll never forget who I am. You see? Isn't it perfect? If I hang his body from Redostrin's city gates, they'll always remember my name. Unfortunately…" His grip on Atem's jaw became painfully tight. "This body is in rather bad shape," he murmured. "You wouldn't mind terribly if I borrowed yours?"

Leaning forward until his lips brushed Atem's ear, he began to mutter an incantation in a feverish whisper. Atem's chest bucked in a movement similar to a dry heave, as if something was trying to force its way out from inside of him. The convulsions grew more violent as Bakura's voice rose in intensity; the magician began to shout—

Atem wasn't certain what happened next. He felt a sensation of weightlessness, followed by an inferno of blinding pain. He let out a choked cry as he fell to his knees. His… his voice…?

Bakura crouched down before him, and Atem gasped, feeling another white-hot explosion in his stomach. That—that was his body, his face! "Hope you have time to find a doctor," Bakura said, in Atem's own soft baritone. "You've lost quite a bit of blood."

Atem's vision began to grow dim. He struggled to stay awake, but the pain and the cold and the growing numbness were simply too much to resist.

He collapsed onto his side and passed out.


	15. Chapter 15

Yugi was filing transformation request forms when he heard a knock on his office door. "Just a minute," he called. He hated filing, and if he put it off another minute, he doubted he would ever get it done.

He allowed himself a small sigh of celebration when the last paper had been put out of sight. Of course, the thrill of his accomplishment was bound to be short-lived, what with another customer already at the door. Oh, he supposed it could be Atem already back from his excursion to Damaste, but it was unlikely. Atem had only been gone a week, and the chances of him returning so quickly were slim.

Yugi opened the door and started to find Atem's girlfriend awaiting him. Or "female friend," as Atem might prefer. He chortled when he remembered how flustered Atem had gotten. "Téa," he said cordially, maintaining his composure though her arrival was a surprise. She always seemed so _nervous_ around him; he hadn't thought she'd ever come visit without Atem in tow. "What can I do for you?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing… I was just wondering… how you were," Téa replied awkwardly, slipping her hands into the pockets of her skirts and rocking on her heels.

"Fine," Yugi answered.

"Good." Téa replied.

A terrible moment of silence fell between them. "How have you been?" Yugi asked at last.

"Fine."

"Good."

Yugi stared at her; Téa glanced aside. She hadn't come just to say hello; he could sense that much. But why she was beating around the bush, he couldn't be certain. Embarrassment, fear? Was she short on cash again, or did she simply have an overabundance of pride? Perhaps this had something to do with that gender-swap spell she'd declined to participate in. He hoped so. If she didn't agree eventually, it could be years before she and Atem worked up the guts to smooch.

"Come on in; sit down," Yugi said, beckoning her into his office. Hesitantly, she shuffled inside, looking about the sparse room with her arms folded as if to protect herself. She lowered herself into one of the chairs with an understandable look of discomfort. A number of strange people had sat in those seats—people with ugly fantasies and tastes perverse by even Yugi's standards. "Can I get you anything?"

"No, no, it's all right," she said, probably thinking of that old saying—never accept food from a magician. Though Yugi knew it was a wise precaution, he couldn't help but feel a little hurt. "So how's business?"

"Fine."

"Good."

Yugi narrowed his eyes at her. Was it possible she was just… lonely? Atem had made it seem like she had few friends, and perhaps even that small number had been reduced now that she was no longer frequenting the Sea Gardens. He frowned. She must have been quite desperate to come to _him _for company. She couldn't even sit back in her seat, his presence made her so anxious.

He reached for the pot of tea at the edge of his desk and poured himself a serving. Despite the fact that it had been brewed nearly six hours ago, the beverage was still steaming hot, courtesy of the enchantment written into the pot's clay. "I was a little disappointed to hear that you turned me down," he said.

He saw Téa tense, face blanching. "It's really okay," he assured her, fighting to keep a lid on his frustration. He knew he came off as a little eccentric, but couldn't somebodyjust _trust _him for once? When in his life had he ever hurt anyone? Yes, his experiments could go… wonky, sometimes, but his test subjects had known exactly what they'd been getting into; he had the paperwork right there in his desk to prove it! "I understand. I don't transform much either."

Téa rose and began to pace the narrow floor, glancing at the minimal decorations Yugi had scattered about. "Atem says you're his best friend," she stated.

"I'd say the same thing about him," Yugi replied.

"And best friends tell each other everything, don't they? At least that's how it works between girls," she said. Yugi nodded, and she wrung her slender hands. "Atem tells you everything. That he feels. About… things." Again she paused, biting her lip. "About me?" she asked. Her voice was hoarse with strain.

Yugi smiled, lowering his head. So that was why she'd come. "I'd tell you what he said to me, but… somehow it feels like cheating, you know? Sorry," he said. "I think you're going to have to wait and let him tell you himself when he's ready."

"You're right," she agreed. "I know you're right." She knew and she didn't care; her expression made that much clear. She looked aside. "I don't know you very well," she said quietly. She sounded worn out, her heart threadbare. "But I really… I really hope you wouldn't just sit by and let me get my hopes up for nothing."

"Hopes?" Yugi asked, with a hopefulness of his own.

Téa folded her arms. "He's perfect because he's not perfect. Does that make sense?" she asked, with a dreary laugh. "I don't have to wonder what's wrong with him. God knows he doesn't have to wonder what's wrong with me." She gestured decisively with her finger. "This is the moment when things go wrong. When everything seems so wonderful you can't imagine what could ever take this feeling away—_this _is the moment when somebody screws it all up."

Yugi stood and edged toward her, careful not to get too close. If she still wasn't comfortable accepting drinks from him, who knew how she'd react if he touched her. "Atem's going to screw up," he told her. "He's never done this before, so he's going to make a mistake. Probably more than one. But… he's been waiting a very long time to meet somebody like you. I don't think he'll let himself lose you if he can help it."

Téa let out a shaking breath, but before she could respond, another knock at the door interrupted him. But not the office door—the front door, which Yugi always kept unlocked. Now Yugi was sure it was a customer, and a first-timer no less. Everyone who knew him was aware that the front room was open to whomever was interested. "Are you feeling better?" Yugi asked Téa.

"Yes, thank you," she said, smiling faintly. "Please, go ahead, don't let me get in the way…"

"I might need the office, but if you want to stick around, you can wait outside," Yugi offered. "It's almost lunchtime; we could eat together—if you're all right with that."

Téa hesitated, freezing with her mouth half open. "You know what?" she said. "I think I will. As long as you promise not to judge me for eating like a cow."

Yugi laughed. "As long as you promise not to judge _me _for not eating a lot, it's a deal." A combination of poor appetite and high metabolism had left him so skinny that most people felt the need to voice their disapproval. Their concern for his health had quickly become an annoyance. The next fool to tell him he should "eat some fried chicken or something" was getting turned into a piglet for a week.

They left the office together, and Yugi straightened his clothes before heading to the front door. The moment his hand touched the knob, an aura of magic assailed his senses, crisp and acrid like the smell of ozone. Yugi gritted his teeth. A sorcerer. Probably someone who'd heard of his visit to Redostrin and decided to renew their search for him.

But when he opened the door, Atem stood before him—or rather some cheap carbon copy. The imposter, whoever he was, had imitated the _politzer _down to the tiniest pearlescent scar, but it was his posture that gave him away as a fake. Few people could mimic Atem's unique carriage; it was elegant, almost kingly, but effortlessly so.

"Atem!" Téa exclaimed, stepping towards them.

"Téa, stay there," Yugi said, without taking his eyes off the doppelganger. His curt tone stopped Téa in her tracks. "I don't know who you are," Yugi said quietly and evenly, "but you're going to tell me what you've done with Atem's spirit. Right now." Beneath the semblance of composure, terror threatened to drown him. Try as he might to act tough, if this sorcerer had heard the first thing about him, he'd know that Yugi's combative magic was pitiful at best.

Atem's imposter chuckled. The dark laugh was perverse in Atem's mouth. "You're as sharp as they claim," he said.

Téa glanced between them. "Yugi…?"

Atem's eyes snapped toward her; she flinched. "Who's this? A friend of yours?" he asked.

"You're Bakura," Yugi stated, in an attempt to draw his attention away from her. If she was hurt, Atem would never forgive him. "Aren't you? Where is Atem?"

Bakura smirked. "Indisposed," he replied. Yugi's grip on the door knob tightened. "Miss," he called, turning back toward Téa. "Do something for me? Take this knife"—he tossed a short blade to her—"and stab Yugi Muto in the heart!"

Téa caught the knife deftly, eyes growing cold, and lunged forward with the dagger raised to strike. Yugi leapt back, upsetting a display table of potions; they tumbled to the ground and shattered as Bakura stood back, cackling. Mind control! Yes, it had to be Bakura. Téa stalked toward him; Yugi edged backwards, yelping when he collided with the wall. There was no way he could fight a sorcerer of such menace, particular not with Téa closing in.

He'd have to run. A few potion bottles had survived their fall to the floor, and as he ducked another of Téa's wild attacks, he reached down and scooped up a pale green one. He heard Bakura let out a short cry of dismay as Yugi uncorked the vial and drained it in one draft. "Kill him!" Bakura snarled, but before the words had even left his mouth, Yugi had shifted into a bird and flown out the open window.


	16. Chapter 16

"Atem? Atem! It is you, isn't… don't worry; we're going to… hang on…"

Atem wobbled on the edge of consciousness, the world flickering in and out of his perception like the light of a dying coal. He felt… different. More foreign and uncomfortable than even when he'd turned female. Whatever form he was stuck in was small, feeble. And cold! Lord, his bones ached so badly with the chill that he wondered if he'd ever be warm again.

He wasn't sure how long he slept before he finally woke. The frigid sensation of weakness had persisted, but now a burning thirst perfected his misery. "Water," he croaked, not sure who he was speaking to, or if anyone could hear him at all.

"Water? Water. You got it, man, just hold on a second… water…" Atem heard the sloshing of liquid, and someone took hold of the back of his neck, lifting him up to a sitting position. The mouth of a water skin was gently pressed to his lips.

The moment the first drop touched his cottony tongue, desperation engulfed him, and he sucked down four great swigs before his helper managed to wrest the bottle from him. "Easy!" Atem crackled open his eyes, half-blind until his vision came into focus. Tristan hovered over him, brow creased so deeply he could have irrigated a field with the furrows. "Please tell me I've got the right guy."

Atem let out a wheezing cough. "Yes, it's me." But from the white hair that covered his pale arms and the notable absence of callus on his hands, this was certainly not his body. Bakura must have switched them somehow. Clever. He'd strengthened himself and weakened his foe in one elegant gambit.

Memories rushed back to Atem in a flood. Yugi! Atem scrambled to his feet, ignoring the lightning-hot pain in his gut. "We have to go; where is my horse…" he said, staggering around in search of the tawny steed.

"Atem, slow down!"Tristan said, grabbing him by the wrist.

Atem turned and glared at him. "Don't you dare try to stop me," he said. He fought to pull his limb free from Tristan's grasp. It was like trying to uproot a tree with his bare hands, and Tristan didn't even seem to be struggling.

"Try? You're kidding yourself if you think I even have to try," Tristan retorted, releasing him. Atem staggered back. "Have you had a good luck in the mirror lately? Even if you hadn't just been _stabbed_ two days ago, I could take you with _both _hands tied behind my back!"

"Two days?" Atem whispered, horrified. Ivrolyn might have been a four day journey for normal people, but Bakura could have easily reached Yugi's home by now. They had no time to spare. Though it took every ounce of his willpower and strength, he managed to scramble onto his horse's back. Something warm and wet leaked out onto his stomach, tickling him.

"Atem. Atem, wait. Wait!" Tristan snatched the reins of Atem's horse. "You need to stop right now and use your head. I am not kidding."

"Tristan," Atem said, clutching his belly. He was nearly doubled over with pain. "This is Yugi."

Tristan frowned. "I know," he sighed. "Look… If you can promise me you'll be responsible, Dreadnaught and I will go after him," he said, indicating his war horse.

"Dreadnaught isn't fast enough."

"He'll surprise you. Trust me. I'll make sure Yugi's safe," Tristan told him. "But you have to _give me your word_ you'll find shelter and take care of yourself, okay?" Atem glanced aside, reluctant, and Tristan stared him down. "Your word."

Atem bowed his head. "You have it," he muttered.

"All right." Tristan walked over to Dreadnaught's side and pushed himself onto the horse's back; Dreadnaught fidgeted as Tristan adjusted his weight. "You're about four miles south of Stergia. There's a river with clean water past that stand of trees, and food in the packs which should last another week. There's some bandages and flint in there, too. If I'm not back before the supplies start to run out, start heading home."

"Understood." With another burst of agonized effort, Atem dismounted and crawled over to sit back against a rock.

Tristan cast him one more look of concern, then wheeled his horse around and took off at a gallop. For all Dreadnaught's size, he made good speed, and within moments Tristan was out of sight.

The next few days were some of the most torturous Atem had ever lived. The discomfort, boredom, and anxiety combined to make the hours stretch on until they felt like weeks. By the time his wound began to seal itself shut, Tristan had still not returned, and despite Atem's paltry appetite, his food reserves were starting to grow low.

"Time to go, Feather," he said, calling his horse over and packing up his few remaining provisions. Mounting Feather was difficult but no longer brutal, and he felt comfortable taking off at a canter.

At noon of his second day of travel, he paused to rest and shove a bit more stale bread down his gullet. As he lowered himself into the grass, a sparrow lighted on a branch a few feet away, tweeting up a racket. "You've got a lot to say for yourself, don't you," Atem said, with a soft chuckle that aggravated his injury. He cringed and rubbed at it. "Want to share?" he asked, holding out a bit of bread as a joke, hardly expecting the creature to dare come near him.

But to his happy surprise, the little speck of a bird had no fear of him, fluttering over to his wrist and eating out of his hand. "Aren't you something?" Atem murmured. After a few seconds of feverish pecking, the sparrow straightened up as if to dart away. But instead, it flew up and landed atop Atem's head, where it began to walk back and forth as if pacing!

Atem's brow furrowed. Something about this was very suspicious. He'd encountered no small number of oddities throughout his lifetime, but nothing so strange as a sparrow using his cranium for a runway. "Do I, by any chance… know you?" he asked.

Cheep!

Was that an answer? Or mere coincidence? "Once more, as confirmation?" Atem requested.

Cheep!

Atem sat straight up. "Then Yugi—Yugi is all right?" he asked. Who else could work a transformation like this one?

Cheep!

Atem let out a shuddering sigh and buried his face in his hands. He felt like he could have wept in relief, and he might have done just that had his companion not still been with him. "Most of Yugi's spells expire after a time. Are you going to change back soon?" Atem asked. The sparrow hopped up and down a bit and gave a half-hearted reply. "You'll… change back eventually, though, I'm sure."

Cheep!

That was a small comfort. Now to find out just who he was dealing with. "Tristan?" he asked. Silence. "Téa?" Nothing. Atem frowned; did he even know anyone else? There was Yugi himself, of course, but he'd never transform his own body. Well, except perhaps in the case of—

Emergencies. Atem closed his eyes and smiled. "It is you, isn't it? Yugi."

Cheep! Yugi fluttered down to rest on Atem's knee, and Atem scooped him up, laughing. "What happened? Did you weigh less than you thought?" According to Yugi, the duration of a potion's effects depended heavily on the drinker's mass. "Well, it doesn't matter. I'm just glad you're all right. Last I saw of Bakura—er, the _real _Bakura—he was going after you, in my body. I was so—what?" Yugi had started to thrash his wings about. "Yugi, I… I don't understand; what—"

With a frustrated chirp, Yugi latched on to a piece of Atem's hair and gave it a tug. "Ow!" Atem cried. "Look at me; am I not in enough pain already? Where are you going? Yugi!"

Yugi flew off, landing on Feather's back. "You want me to go somewhere?" Atem ventured. Cheep! Yugi turned, pointing himself toward the northwest. "You want me to go home?" Cheep! "Right now?" Cheep cheep!

Atem's reprieve from worry ended abruptly. Something must have happened, or Yugi would not have been acting this way. But what? Curse Yugi's thinness; would it kill him to eat some fried chicken or something? "All right; let's go," Atem said, gathering up his things. "Do you think you can keep up?" In response, Yugi darted into Feather's saddlebag. Atem took that as a no.

They'd put a hundred miles behind them before the sun began to set. He considered riding through the night, and perhaps Feather could manage a couple more hours, but Atem was so exhausted he felt his muscles were about to fall right off his bones. "Just for a moment," Atem explained before sliding off Feather's back and crumpling into a heap. Too fatigued to move another inch, he closed his eyes and fell asleep on the spot.

The next morning found him lying on his back in a pile of hay, covered in a soft blanket. The change in scenery was so jarring Atem was sure that he was dreaming—or was this real life, and he'd just escaped a nightmare? When he sat up and looked about, he realized neither was true. Yugi had at last returned to his normal form, and he'd probably been the one behind these luxuries.

Wait! He'd returned to normal; he could tell Atem was had happened! "Yugi, what are you doing here? Where is Bakura?" Atem demanded.

Yugi wasted no time asking if he was all right. "In Ivrolyn. Last I saw he was in my shop, and… Téa was under his control." Téa! How on earth had she gotten involved in all this? "I had to turn into a bird to escape. I flew down here to try to find you." Yugi hung his head. Atem had never seen him look so ashamed. "I left Téa there with him, Atem. I am so sorry."

Atem turned aside sharply. "It's all right," he said through gritted teeth. Yugi didn't look up. "It's all right, really; I… I might have done the same thing in your position." It was a lie—he would have protected her until the end, as he'd been trained to do. And he could tell that Yugi sensed his deception. But Atem had no right to resent Yugi for what he'd done. He was a civilian. It was practically their job to run away.

"Besides," Atem continued, "if you had died, who would have fixed this?" He spread his skinny arms to indicate his new body.

"Do you want me to change you back now?" Yugi asked.

"Will it hurt?" Atem asked, thinking of his wound. Grimly, Yugi nodded. "Then no. I can manage. It would just confuse Tristan anyway. Did you see him?" he asked. "On your way to find me? Tall, with brown hair, riding a black horse that looks big enough to carry a house on its back?"

"We must have missed each other," Yugi said, shaking his head.

Atem swore. If Dreadnaught had managed to keep up his pace, Tristan could have already arrived in Ivrolyn. Bakura could be in custody. Or Tristan could be another of Bakura's mind-washed puppets. "If we leave now we could get there by midnight," Yugi told him, observing his distress. Then, much more softly, he added, "Faster, if you didn't have to worry about my weight."

"You… you want to stay here?" Atem asked in disbelief. Now, when Atem was injured and needed help more than ever?

"No, no, of course not," Yugi told him. "But I was thinking maybe I could run." Run? They still had another seventy miles ahead. "You could switch off between me and Feather. Keep him from getting too tired."

Oh. Yugi was offering to transform again, and from the way he was fiddling with his fingers, he wasn't too thrilled by the prospect. Still, it was a good idea, for all the reasons he'd mentioned. "Will you be able to change back within a reasonable amount of time, this go round?" Atem asked.

"Yeah. I'll use an incantation. It's more precise, but it takes a few minutes." Minutes he hadn't had with Téa and Bakura at his throat.

Atem nodded, and Yugi retreated a few feet, crouching down and muttering to himself. As he worked, Atem swallowed a light breakfast and tried to coax his stiff legs into motion.

He had just made it to his feet when Yugi set his hands on the ground, falling silent. His limbs and neck lengthened rapidly as his clothes tightened, becoming one with his flesh. Chestnut hair sprouted up over his skin; face reformed into a horse's muzzle. His slender torso barreled outward, and his back reshaped to form a stately curve. A long tail grew out from his spine and began to flick to and fro.

Yugi walked up to Atem's blanket and began nosing at it. Catching on to his meaning, Atem folded it and laid it across Yugi's back. "Here, come over to this stone," Atem requested, leading Yugi to a boulder half-buried in the dirt. Using it as a stepping stool, he clenched his teeth and vaulted up. Yugi staggered beneath the sudden weight and Atem swayed, grabbing Yugi's mane to steady himself. "Careful!" he breathed. A fall from this height might pop his wound back open.

Atem actively struggled not to tap his heels into Yugi's sides. Decades of riding had spawned many a habit, but he didn't think Yugi would enjoy being treated like a beast. "Start at a trot and speed up slowly, please," he said. Whinnying, Yugi obliged him. With a sharp, short whistle, Atem commanded Feather to follow, and the fleet-footed horse kept pace with them easily.

A few hours later, Yugi was beginning to show signs of wear; sweat had beaded on his neck, and his breathing was heavy and labored. "Let's stop for a moment and switch," Atem said, and Yugi slowed to a halt, head drooping with fatigue.

The sun had just fallen when Ivrolyn appeared in the distance. No buildings were aflame and everything looked intact, which Atem considered a minute mercy. Yugi returned to his human form as Atem slid off Feather's back. Wiping the sweat from his brow with his sleeve, Yugi gestured for the water skin, and Atem hurried to pass it to him.

"Well," he gasped, after draining the last of their water supply. "There's my exercise for the month." He wiped his mouth.

"Do you have any way of determining if Bakura's still here? If Téa is all right?" Atem asked.

With a sad frown, Yugi shook his head. "Nothing I can pull off, especially not without supplies," he said. He stared into the distance. "Hopefully Rachel's okay," he murmured. "I've never left her alone for this long, and…" And Bakura might have found her. Atem reached over and squeezed his shoulder. "We'll need to come up with some kind of strategy. How good are you with a bow?" Yugi asked him.

"Not the best," Atem admitted. Not to the mention the fact that, in his current state, it would be a miracle if he could even _string_ his long bow. "And if you're thinking of having me shoot him, there's another problem with that plan: the good Bakura. As far as I'm aware, he's still trapped in there with that psychopath. Even if I managed to hit him, there's a chance he could be killed."

"From what you told me, it sounds like he'd be willing to take that risk," Yugi argued.

"All well and good when it's his own life he's taking. But I won't have that boy's blood on my hands," Atem told him. He folded his arms. "There's some less violent solution; we just have to think harder…"

Yugi swallowed. "There… may… be something I can do, to keep his magic sealed until you can restrain him," he said. "But it's going to be hard and it's going to take time, and if anything goes wrong, you and Téa are going to be the ones who pay the price." He hung his head, staring down at his hands. "Atem, if something happened to you—b-because I got something wrong, I…"

Atem smiled gently at him. "Yugi," he said. "You don't have to worry about that. Do you think I'm frightened of some white-haired toad? Please! I'm a _politzer_! I face tougher opponents before breakfast!" Yugi let out a little hiccup of a laugh, and Atem pushed his chin up with a finger. "Everything's going to be just fine. So—let's hear about your idea."


	17. Chapter 17

"If Bakura really knew me at all during college, he'll be waiting for me at my house," Yugi said. Facing each other, they sat cross-legged in the withered grass, silhouetted by the last vestiges of daylight. "All my research documentation is there. He'll assume I wouldn't just leave it. But what I'm _not _sure about is whether or not he's expecting you. If he is, we could be in a little trouble."

"Why?" Atem asked.

"Because if I'm going to be able to get close enough long enough to cast the spell to bind him, you're going to have to take my place," Yugi said. "Talk to him, disguised as me, and keep him distracted."

"Talk?" Atem's eyebrows shot up. "Perhaps you misunderstood me when I said he wanted to murder you."

"Well, you're going to have to stall him somehow," Yugi said with an angry gesture. "The spell will take at least ninety seconds, if I even get it right the first time." And from the expression of mild nausea that crossed Yugi's face, Atem guessed that such a feat would require a considerable stroke of good fortune.

"Changing your appearance won't be a problem. Obviously," Yugi said, with a fleeting smile of pride. "But you're still going to have to copy my mannerisms well enough to convince him that you're me. And if he thinks you're alive, you're going to have to be even more careful, because he'll probably guess we're up to something like this. Stuff about magic and the university may come up, too, if luck's on our side and he's feeling chatty, so I'll have to give you a crash course in everything I know."

"Then we should get started," Atem replied, taking a deep breath. "We've got a lot of work to do."

Yugi nodded, dropped his head, and shut his eyes. His lips began to move in a silent, indecipherable chant. A muffled sound of pain escaped Atem's throat as the transformation took effect, shortening his bones and shrinking his muscles. "Sorry," Yugi told him, wincing.

"No… it's all right; it's nothing…" Atem panted. He squirmed, getting a feel for his latest form as if he were trying on a pair of new gloves. He would never have believed it a month ago, but he was starting to get used to the ill fit of a foreign body. It was uncomfortable, but bearable, like wearing pants that were a tad too tight.

"All right, stand up," Yugi instructed, rising to his feet and offering Atem a hand. Atem took it; Yugi pulled him up—and Atem was startled to be at eye level with the magician. He glanced around and took in his surroundings from Yugi's vantage point. The difference in perspective was unnervingly severe. Little Feather looked large enough to trample them to bits, and the thought of climbing onto his back without assistance was laughable.

Yugi walked around Atem in circles, appraising him with a frown. "Where to start?" he murmured, coming to a standstill and crossing his arms. "First of all, you're going to have to stop looking so… graceful," Yugi told him. Graceful! The girlish descriptor wounded Atem's pride as sorely as any insult. "Regal, then!" Yugi huffed, perceiving Atem's indignation. "Slump a little. No, wait, that's too much. And don't hold your head so high…"

A half hour passed before Yugi was even remotely satisfied. "Well. We can come back to that later," Yugi said, waving a hand. "Try walking."

Atem took a moment to analyze Yugi's energetic, shuffling gait. Then he set off, glancing sidelong at Yugi for his critique. "Not bad, I guess," Yugi said, shrugging. "Maybe shorter steps."

Another thirty minutes vanished as they practiced. A full hour now behind them, Atem began to grow impatient. "Yugi, every second we spend here nitpicking is another opportunity for Bakura to do God knows what with Téa. Isn't this good enough?" he asked.

"If you want to die horribly, yes, I'm sure it's fine," Yugi informed him. Atem raised an eyebrow at the snark, and Yugi slipped his hands into his pockets with a sigh. "I understand you're worried about Téa. And you're right; this is taking a long time, and we haven't even gotten to the magic part yet." He wiggled his mouth back and forth as he thought. The resemblance to a bunny rabbit was uncanny. "There's one thing we can try to speed things up. Uh—in theory, anyway. I've actually only tested it on animal transformations so far."

"What is it?" Atem asked. Learning to mimic Yugi was looking more impossible by the minute. Already he'd forgotten a good third of Yugi's corrections.

"One of the biggest issues people had with animal transformations was that it was so hard for them to figure out how to get around in the new body," Yugi explained. Yes, Atem had wondered how Yugi had been able to maneuver so naturally on four feet. "I figured out that if you add a few extra layers of spell-work to the enchantment, you could actually transform part of the person's _brain_, too—not enough to change their personality, but just enough to teach them how to fly or run around."

Atem blinked. "You're proposing to turn a part of my mind… into yours?" he asked hesitantly.

"If it works the same with humans as it does with beasts, you should be able to do all this stuff we've been practicing without a second thought," Yugi told him. He grimaced. "Uh, unfortunately, a couple of kinkshave been known to come up every once in a while. Sometimes the animal instincts and the human mind will be at odds, and the client will end up doing something… inappropriate. But that shouldn't be a problem here!" Yugi added quickly. "You and I are pretty much on the same page when it comes to Bakura."

"Is it reversible?" Atem asked. Yugi nodded, and Atem narrowed his eyes. "Guaranteed?"

"Let's put it this way—I've never met a metamorphosis I couldn't undo," Yugi told him. Atem supposed that was all the assurance he could hope for.

Even so: there was a first time for everything.

"Well," Atem said, clearing his throat, "I suppose it is at least worth a try."

"You're sure?" Yugi asked him.

"If you are." Considering how guarded Yugi could be, Atem was shocked to think he'd share himself with someone else this way. He hoped this meant that Yugi trusted him far more than he had realized. It was either that, or he'd been performing so poorly that Yugi had grown desperate. "By the way, I fully expect this to be counted toward what I owe you. I daresay this whole business is worth at _least _a third of my debts."

Yugi laughed. "It's a deal," he said. "But you'd better give me a full report when this is over!" Then, placing his hands on either side of Atem's face, he pulled Atem forward until their foreheads were touching.

Yugi said and did nothing for an uncomfortably long time; Atem resisted the urge to fidget. Minutes later, Atem felt the dull throb of a headache form behind his eyebrows. "Say your name," Yugi murmured.

"It's…" He stopped. It was… it was Atem, wasn't it? No, what was he thinking; Atem was his friend. His name was Yugi. Or…

Yugi drew back from him, and Atem started. That was…! No—no, that wasn't him. How could there be two of him? He was Atem. He had to be, though it felt strange to think it. Or did it not feel strange…? "This isn't going to work," Yugi said, frowning at him.

"No!" Atem cried, reaching forward to stop him. "I… I just need to get used to it…" All these memories! Two childhoods, two families, two lives, two jobs, two faces! Which one was his? He was wearing Yugi's body now, but… somehow, it didn't seem to belong to him. "I just expected to… feel a bit more like myself, you know? To hear… you… more like a voice in the back of my mind."

"That's usually how it works with animals. But I guess my personality is too well-defined," Yugi said, tapping his chin with his finger. "I can change you back."

"I can do this," Atem insisted. He might not have been able to decide on his identity, but whoever he was, he'd have to master this if Bakura was to be stopped.

If he thought about his brain as being composed of two halves—one part Atem, the other part Yugi—the contradictions in his head became easier to bear. He didn't have to be two people at once. He could be Atem for a moment, and Yugi later, and switch back and forth however he pleased. "Atem?" Yugi asked him in a tone of concern.

"No," Atem replied. "No, it's mostly Yugi for now. And probably until you cast the spell on Bakura." Yugi beamed at this development, eyes dancing in fascination. "I'll tell you all about it later," Atem assured him—aware, for the first time, of just how much Yugi's work meant to him.

"Let's run some drills," Yugi said, taking him by the shoulders. "Just to make sure you can answer quickly when you're put on the spot. Name?"

_Atem. _"Yugi Muto," Atem replied without any pause.

"Birthday?"

_August the seventieth. _"June 4th," Atem answered.

"Where were you born?"

_Al-Aram_. "Gressland village."

"Recite!"

_Recite what? _"I once had a look at a book in a nook, but forsook what I undertook when I was mistook for a crook." Heh. He'd nearly forgotten that old rhyme. But—when had he learned it?

Yugi's smile was so wide Atem could have counted each one of his teeth. "Great job!" he cheered, pumping his fist. "Call me crazy, but we might actually get away with this."


	18. Chapter 18

Yugi was almost vibrating with curiosity as he watched Atem ready for the last leg of their journey. The change in his personality had been sudden and dramatic; now the nuances in stride and posture he'd struggled with seemed second nature to him. How many of Yugi's memories would he retain when he was changed back? Yugi wondered. He wasn't keen on the idea of Atem knowing his darker secrets, but he'd eagerly pay such a price if it meant perfecting this new enchantment.

Atem unsheathed a small dagger and held it aloft, scrutinizing it. "The Atem part of me wants to bring this, but…" He grinned sheepishly. "Now that I think about it, I'm not actually sure I know how to use it."

"I'll be hiding in the copse of trees on the east side of my property," Yugi told him. "It should be close enough that Bakura will sense my magic and think it's coming from you."

Atem smiled at this. "You know I know all this already," he said. Yugi laughed.

"Sorry. It's hard to remember it's not just Atem in there anymore," Yugi explained. "Well. Then I guess you know what to do. Good luck."

Atem nodded. "Same to you." Slipping the dagger through his belt loop, Atem slipped the restraints into a bag and hung it over his shoulder, then headed off in the direction of Yugi's home. As he walked, he clenched and unclenched his fists. A means, perhaps, of keeping his nerves in check.

Yugi darted into the woods, taking cover behind a dense bush. He peeked up, watching as Atem came to a halt a few feet from the storefront. "Bakura!" he called, in a steady, commanding tone that could only have originated in Atem's half of his mind. Level-headed Atem, as they said—with a choke chain on his emotions. "Come out. Don't worry. I won't run away again."

The shop door creaked open, and Bakura strode out, still draped in Atem's visage. Glassy-eyed figures guarded him on either side: Tristan, Téa, and a half-naked girl in a loosely bound robe—Rachel! Yugi bit his lip to keep a gasp from escaping him.

But what was he doing sitting here watching? He had a spell to cast. Reaching into Atem's pack, he spread his makeshift supplies onto the grass. A broad, flat leaf made do in place of paper, and flint sparks would have to suffice for flame. A leather strap symbolized the restrains, as Atem had the real ones. He set to work, but every few seconds he glanced up, keeping an eye on the situation.

"You've kept me waiting," Bakura snarled, lips curling into a smirk. "And here I thought your precious papers would have merited a little more of your interest. Oh, well. Since they mean so little to you, there's no point in having them cluttering up the place, don't you think?" He snapped his fingers, and Téa vanished into the house. Uneasiness tied knots in Yugi's stomach.

"Why bother with my things, Bakura?" Atem asked casually, gazing at him with an expression of disinterest. "I thought it was me you were after."

"Fool!" Bakura hissed. "You think that I just want you dead? I want you gone! Erased! Forgotten! I want no one to remember your name. And that means no testaments to your talent may survive."

Smoke began to escape from the store's windows, billowing in grey columns into the sky. Yugi's hand flew to his mouth—fire. His research! All the priceless artifacts he'd acquired; everything! He returned to the spell with renewed vigor and finalized it with a hasty phrase. It fizzled and failed. Frantically, he started from the beginning.

Unperturbed by the inferno that was blossoming in the background, Atem merely chuckled. "What's so funny?" Bakura snapped.

"You. Acting like I don't have backup copies scattered all over the world," Atem replied. Yugi slapped his forehead with his palm. _Why_ hadn't he thought of that? Dimwit, dimwit, dimwit! For the second time, he tried the spell, and again it fell flat.

"Then what the hell did you come here for?" Bakura grabbed Rachel by the wrist and yanked her forward. "The girl?"

"Of course not," Atem laughed, smiling. "She's just a test subject. Keep her, if you want. No, what I came back for was a ring, quite valuable. Let's hope it survives the flames, hm?"

Yugi was speechless with awe. How on earth could he be so _calm_? If only Yugi could be so even-tempered; then this spell might actually _work_. "Focus, Yugi," he whispered to himself, rubbing his hands together. He took a few rapid deep breaths. "Focus." His techniques were less effective than he'd hoped; he found himself trembling. Everyone and everything he loved was at stake—his home, his work, his friends. And if he kept screwing up, the magician would destroy it all. He would have nothing left.

Bakura shoved Rachel aside; she stumbled and landed hard in the dirt. "You seem to forget, Yugi," he said, leering. "I have ways of making you tell me everything I want to know." For the first time, Yugi saw Atem's composure falter, and Bakura let out a maddened laugh.

Yugi had one last shot. Biting his thumb, he drew runes on the leaf with his thumb. A strike of the flint sent sparks flying across the leaf's bloodied surface. Then, rolling it into a tight cylinder, he bound it in place with the leather strap.

"_Tell me where your backup copies are hidden,_" Bakura hissed, voice laced with magic. "_All of them!_"

Eyes clouding over, Atem languidly opened his mouth. "There are no—"

Yugi uttered the final word of the spell, almost collapsing in relief when he felt a burst of power leave him. Atem stopped short as Bakura staggered, letting out a howl of rage. "How?" he cried. "How did you—"

He was silenced by a force slamming into his head. He collapsed with a dull thud, crushed ear leaking blood, to reveal Tristan standing behind him with a clenched fist. "And _that's _for making me wash your feet, you creep!" Tristan declared.

Yugi leapt up from his hiding place and sprinted toward Rachel, scraping his knees as he fell at her side. "Rachel? Rachel. Oh, don't cry," he said as she buried her face in his chest, sobbing and quivering. He rubbed her back. "I'm here; it's okay…"

"Yugi?" Téa asked. She raised her arms to shield her face from the heat of Yugi's burning home, which had erupted into a shapeless conflagration. "Wait, which one's…?"

Yugi helped Rachel to her feet, keeping his arm tightly wrapped around her. "Me. I'm the real Yugi," he answered.

"We should get him secured," Atem said, jutting his chin in Bakura's direction. Stepping forward, he removed the chains from his pack and bound Bakura with the icy, ponderous metal.

Tristan stared at him. "So if that's the real Yugi," he said, pointing his index finger, "then who's…?"

"Atem!" Téa ran forward and threw her arms around him. Yugi saw a blush redden his cheeks. "Oh, Atem, it was a nightmare! I couldn't move; I thought I was going to kill him—"

"It's all over now. You're safe," Atem told her, gingerly resting his hand on her head. His gaze turned to Yugi, and he cringed. "Yugi, your research—I am so sorry; I know how important it was to you."

Yugi grumbled. "Backups!" he spat. He was supposed to be some kind of genius, yet somehow, something so simple had escaped him! Now what was he going to do? He had no home, no notes, no inventory, no _materials_…

"I'm sure most of what was in the basement will survive. The flames will be hard-pressed to get through all that stone and metal," Atem told him in a weakly encouraging tone. He winced as a roof beam snapped and fell into the rubble with a crash. "And all your _korona_—those should be fine. Uh… after they cool off, of course."

"You and your friend can stay with me if you want to, Yugi," Téa offered.

"And I bet I can get some friends together and clean up this mess in no time!" Tristan added, setting his hands on his hips and cheerfully appraising the blaze.

Yugi couldn't help but give a faint smile. "Thanks, guys," he said softly. "But Tristan should focus on getting Bakura to the _politz _office, and Atem, I should see about changing you back. Téa, could you look after Rachel a minute?"

"Sure," Téa said, pulling the poor rabbit girl into her arms. "Come on, sweetie, let's, uh… let's see about tying up your robe…"

As Tristan heaved Bakura onto his shoulder, Yugi approached him, setting his hands on Bakura's back. A few softly murmured words reshaped him back into his proper pale self. "Can you imagine the look on Joey's face if he saw me dragging you into the station in chains like this?" Tristan asked Atem, chuckling.

"I doubt he'd be too surprised," Atem replied. "Joey already thinks I'm a witch." A result of Atem's friendship with Yugi, or so the young sorcerer suspected.

"All right, you're up next," Yugi said, beckoning for Atem to come closer.

"Perhaps I should keep my fingers crossed," Atem said. "You may have noticed, but your luck today hasn't been what you'd call enviable." Yugi made a face. As if he weren't nervous enough already.

Grabbing Atem's shoulders, he squeezed his eyes shut. As if with an invisible mental hand, he reached forward, plucking and tugging at the strings of magic that tied Atem's mind to Yugi's. Seconds passed. Still Yugi struggled. He could feel the eyes of the others on his back as they waited for something to happen—and nothing did. "Maybe we should do this later!" Yugi said at last, laughing almost hysterically. Oh, Atem was going to be so mad… "The raging flames are a little distracting, don't you think?"

Atem narrowed his eyes at Yugi. "Yes," he murmured with no attempt to hide his skepticism. "The fire. I'm sure that's the only problem."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

I apologize if this ending seems a little anticlimactic. Unfortunately, I have never been a fan of the way heroes and villains tend to dance around each other as the author tries to drag out the finale. It feels contrived.

The next and final chapter should be up in a few days.

I'll have more to say later, but I want to add this: Thanks very much to everyone who has taken the time to read! Your comments have meant a great deal to me.


	19. Chapter 19

A full week after Bakura had been arrested, and Yugi had still not found a way to return Atem to his true self. He'd described the problem as a magical "knot," like a thin necklace chain all tangled up. Correcting the issue would take time and patient effort. Both were commodities in short supply as he attempted to put his singed life back in order.

Fortunately, Atem's prolonged transformation did ofer one advantage: using his newfound access to Yugi's expertise, Atem had been working to restore Yugi's lost research notes. As compensation for his hard work—or, more likely, out of guilt—Yugi had promised to cancel all of his debt, and pay him a little extra, besides.

Atem bound up yet another ream of papers as Yugi sat on Atem's battered wood floor, scowling in concentration. Rachel, content and idle, squatted beside him in cotton pajamas. "Five down," Atem sighed, massaging his cramped writing hand. "Who knows how many left to go. Has anybody ever told you that you desperately need a hobby?"

Yugi's only response: "Mmph." His eyes were empty and stared dead ahead. Rachel flopped onto her side, resting her head in his lap; he absently began to stroke her hair.

Atem leaned back in his seat, looking sidelong at him. "Yugi," he began, taking on a more serious tone. "I was thinking. This spell you used to alter my mind: do you think it could be adapted to help Bakura?"

Yanked out of his thoughts, Yugi turned to face him. "Bakura?" he asked.

"If you can transform my brain to add your memories and instincts, why can't you transform Bakura's mind to dispose of his evil half? Or at least suppress it," Atem explained.

Yugi frowned pensively. "Huh," he murmured. "Probably nobody's ever tried it, either."

"I'm not sure if anyone else even knows that it's possible," Atem said.

"We'd have to figure out a way to keep the good Bakura intact, though. We'd probably need a complete brain mapping, or better yet, scans from before his accident…" Yugi's eyes started to fall out of focus again. He quickly shook himself alert, putting on a scowl. "Atem!" he whined. "Isn't one problem enough? It feels like my head about to combust."

Atem laughed softly. "Sorry," he said. "But to be fair, it _was_, in all likelihood, your idea." He tapped his forehead.

"Yeah, yeah. Hey, come here; I want to try again," Yugi told him.

Atem knelt down, careful not to disturb Rachel, who appeared to have fallen fast asleep. "Here goes," Yugi breathed. He grabbed Atem's hand, and a stinging feeling bit at Atem's flesh. That was a good sign, wasn't it? A long moment of silence passed, and Atem barely breathed, unwilling to let anything disrupt Yugi's concentration. "What's your name?" Yugi asked him at last.

"Atem," he answered. Then he blinked. There had been no conflict in his mind, no contradictory little whisper from a foreign voice. It… was working?

Yugi allowed himself a short-lived grin, clearly struggling to keep his hopes at bay. "How long will a half-liter aqueous human-to-fox potion affect a nineteen-year-old, seventy-kilogram male?"

"About…" Atem trailed off. He knew this. Didn't he know this? "Wonderful," he muttered, rubbing his temples. "Now I'm to be cursed with this tip-of-my-tongue feeling every time your work is brought up."

"Hah! Finally!" Yugi threw his arms around Atem, squashing Rachel between them; she squeaked and extracted herself, scampering away. As Yugi embraced him, Atem felt his body shift, reverting at long last to his scarred, callused, brown-skinned self.

He sighed, clutching his stomach—_his own stomach_—as if it were some sort of precious treasure. "If you ever catch me complaining about my appearance again," he said, "remind me of this moment." Though it had been only a fortnight since he'd last dwelt in his own skin, in retrospect, it felt more like months.

"I'm sure Téa will be happy to hear the good news," Yugi told him. "She looked kind of queasy when she found out there was a chance a piece of me could be stuck in your head for the rest of your life."

_Téa_. Atem fell onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. "She looked a bit queasy with the whole ordeal," he murmured. One she would have avoided altogether, had it not been for him. She might have run to embrace him the other day, in the heat of the moment, but now that she'd had a while to think, he was probably the last person she wanted to see.

Yugi cast him a dull-eyed stare. "Atem, don't," he said. The severity in his tone was unprecedented and so startling that Atem sat straight up. "Do you know why she came to my house that day?" Yugi asked. "She came because she cared so much about you that she was terrified something would drive you apart. Something like this. Now, if it were just your feelings at stake, I'd let you sit there and guilt trip yourself as much as you wanted—"

"Guilt trip!" Atem exclaimed. "You act as though I shouldn't feel sorry, when…" When all of this could have been averted, if he'd only been a little quicker with the chains.

"You're not the only one you're punishing this time," Yugi told him quietly. Then crossed his arms, back straight as a board. "And that's why you're going to get your butt up off this floor and go let her know what's happened. And no, you can't borrow the ring!" he said, as soon as Atem opened his mouth. "You're just using that thing to kill the mood, at this point, so don't pretend you're doing it to act all chivalrous."

Atem scowled. He hadn't been scolded like that since he'd been a boy. It smarted. "You know, you can be very mean when you get going," he stated. But he threw up his hands, and deep down, he had to admit Yugi had a point. "Fine—I'm leaving. Kicked out of my own home by a pair of squatters, head hung in defeat."

Rising, he stepped outside and paused a moment to let the sun fall on his face. He'd gotten his very first sunburn while stuck in Yugi's form, and hesitant to repeat the experience, he'd spent most of the past week indoors. It felt good to be himself again, to stand in the light, and to be free of the sneaking worry that he'd never regain his own body. Even so… he wasn't ready to say he'd never transform again. After all, he still hadn't gotten the chance to do anything _interesting_—run like a horse, jump like a deer, soar across the open sky like an eagle.

Despite Yugi's assurance that Téa would be eager to see him, Atem was weak with anxiety when he showed up on her stoop. He tapped his knuckles so lightly against her door that almost no sound was produced. Oh well. Guess she wasn't home. He spun around and started to jog away.

He hadn't made it ten feet before a voice called out, "Atem?" Wincing, he turned; Téa was leaning out her kitchen window, grinning at him. "Yugi changed you back!"

He forced his face into a smile. "Yes," he agreed. "Anyway, I just wanted to let you know—"

"Atem, wait!" Forsaking the front door, she clambered out the window and nabbed him before he was able to bolt. "We haven't really had a chance to talk since… well, you know."

"I'd hoped to give you space," Atem admitted. "Between what happened with Bakura and what happened to me, I thought…"

"What? That I'd be traumatized and blame the whole thing on you?" Téa asked, standing akimbo and smirking. Atem glanced away, and she dropped her arms. "Atem, I'm not made of glass. As you've probably figured out over the past few weeks, most girls aren't."

"What Bakura did to you wouldn't be easy for anyone to bear, male or female," Atem told her.

"What Bakura did to me was the exactly the same thing he did to Tristan. And he tried to _kill _Yugi. I don't see you walking on eggshells around them," Téa retorted.

"That's not because they're men," he said.

"Then why?"

Atem remembered what Yugi had said to him, how Téa's affection for him had given way to fear. As he stood before her, refusing to make eye contact, he realized his feelings were little different. "If Tristan or even Yugi became angry with me… I could handle it," he said. "I could believe we'd eventually make up, because we always make up. But this… whatever it is we have, it… it feels fragile."

Téa exhaled and lowered her head. "I know what you mean," she said. "But have you ever noticed that the most valuable things usually are?"

"Not diamonds," he pointed out.

Smiling softly, Téa stepped forward and brushed a hand against his cheek. The sensation of her touch was so powerful, so electric, that he shuddered. "You know what I think?" she asked him. "I think, whatever fragile thing we have—if we're patient, and we're careful, we could turn it into something like a diamond."

"Very patient," Atem commented somewhat dryly. "Diamonds require hundreds of millions of years to form, you know."

"I can wait." Her smile took on a mischievous air. "You know what else diamonds require."

"What?"

"A little heat."

She pulled him forward, pressing her soft lips against his own. He froze, every muscle in his body seizing up—and then let out a faint moan of pleasure as he slipped his hands around her waist, exploring her subtle curves. Heaven, the warmth that flooded his body could have set him alight, and his heart beat so hard he feared he might faint…

Slowly, she withdrew; he leaned in toward her for one last moment of contact before they parted. Lowering her hands to hold his, she let out a giddy laugh. "That was your first kiss, wasn't it?" she asked, looking up at him.

Atem flushed. "Was it that obvious?" he asked her.

"It was like kissing a statue!" she teased. Atem chuckled, rubbing at the back of his neck. "But I think you'll do just fine with a little practice." She turned, leading him by the hand into her house.

"What are you doing?" Atem asked, staggering along behind her.

She batted an eye in a suggestive wink. "Starting your first lesson."

—END—

* * *

**Author's Note:  
**

Hey guys! Shout-outs to everybody who's stuck with me until the end! Your comments have been very encouraging to me. I hope you've enjoyed reading half as much as I've enjoyed writing.

If any of you have developed a taste for gender transformation fiction or for Fem!Atem, you may want to stay tuned for my upcoming fluff piece _Fool's Wager_. After Yugi discovers he had the ability to change the sex of others, Tea challenges Atem to a bet: stay female for one solid month and she'll buy him all the ice cream he can stomach. Lose, and he'll be forced to dance ballet with her at the school talent show. Atem accepts, severely underestimating how much the change will affect both him and his friends.

Thanks!


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